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Book 



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\4-a.sA/We. Wa-^cifc Listen 
THE HISTORY 



WESTERN STATES, 



ILLUSTRATED BY 



TALES, SKETCHES AND ANECDOTES 




WITH NUMEROUS ENGRAVINSK/^ ^ ^ 



By LAMBERT LILLY, Schoolmaster. 

BOSTON: 
PUBLISHED BY WILLIAM D. TICKNOR. 
1835. 



\\ 3 X V 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1833, by 
S. G. Goodrich, 
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts, 



PREFACE. 



This work being one of a series, it maybe proper 
to insert here the preface to the first of them, en- 
titled The Story of the American Revolution, which 
explains the plan and design of the author. 

u In this little work, the author has attempted to relate the story 
of our glorious Revolution, in a simple manner, so that it may be 
interesting- and instructive to children and youth. He has not 
adopted a very regular method of treating the subject, but has 
attempted to keep the interest of the pupil constantly alive, by a 
variety of tales, anecdotes and sketches, illustrative of the events 
with which they are connected. 

u It is remarkable, that very few books of history are read by 
children except as a task ; while works of fiction are perused with 
the greatest avidity. Now, if fiction borrows its chief interest from 
its resemblance to truth, how is this fact to be accounted for? I 
think it may be explained by two considerations. In the first 
place, fiction, being the offspring of the imagination, is generally 
written with a warmth of language which makes the reader realize 
every part of the story, and cheats him, against his better knowl- 
edge, into the persuasion that the narrative is true. On the con- 
trary, the writing" of history is a task calculated to repress all vi- 
vacity of feeling ; research must take the place of invention, and 
fancy must act in humble subserviency to facts, dates and records. 
Under such circumstances, dulness creeps into the mind of the 
writer, and is thus imparted to the book. 

" For these reasons, in most books, fiction wears the aspect of 
truth, and truth the aspect of fiction. Children are excellent judg-es 
of manner, and are very much affected by it. They will listen 
with much more interest to an indifferent story, happily told, than 
to a good one stupidly related. They, as well as people of mature 
age, are more attracted by a novel, or romance, written in a lively 
and natural style, than by the most important history, if composed 
in a dull and heavy manner. 

" A second consideration, which will account for the preference 
given to tales of fiction, is this : — They are generally much more 
1* 



4 



PREFACE. 



minute in their details than books of history. The latter tell us of 
armies and nations, while the former present to us individuals, 
and acquaint us with their thoughts and feelings, their hopes and 
fears, their joys and sorrows, and thus make us sympathize with 
them in all the vicissitudes to which they are exposed. It is this 
minuteness of detail which forms one of the principal charms in 
books of fiction 5 it is the comprehensiveness of books of history, 
which makes them repulsive to juvenile readers, who are always 
seeking 1 for amusement. 

*' Such being the views of the writer of the present volume, he 
has adopted a method in some respects new. If he has occasion 
to state that a battle occurred, he states it in few words, and then 
relates anecdotes, individual adventures, and other minute circum- 
stances, calculated to fix the attention of the pupil, to excite his 
interest, and thus make him realize the whole scene, as if he 
were himself an actor in it. 

" By this means, and by adopting a familiar style, the author 
hopes he has succeeded in imparting to this little work some of the 
attractive qualities which belong to tales of fiction. Nothing, cer- 
tainly, is more desirable, than that truth should be the basis of early 
education; and whoever shall succeed in rendering history inter- 
esting and agreeable to youth, will perform a task for which he 
will deserve the thanks of the age. That the author has fully suc- 
ceeded in this attempt, he cannot pretend to hope 5 but, deeply 
convinced of the importance of the object he has in view, he has 
made the present experiment, and leaves the result to the decision 
of the public. 

u If this volume is favorably received, it will be followed by a 
series of works on American history, executed in a similar man- 
ner. The subjects proposed are the following : — the Early His- 
tory of New England 3 the Early History of the Middle States 3 
the Early History of the Southern States 3 the History of the West- 
ern States ; the History of the West Indies 5 the History of Mexi- 
co 3 the Early History of South America 5 and the History of Dis- 
coveries in America. These volumes, if published, wiTl be abun- 
dantly illustrated by engravings, and will appear at intervals of 
two or three months. 

" The materials for these works are abundant, and in the high- 
est degree interesting. The design of the author will be to em- 
brace the entire history of the Western Continent in the series, 
and thus furnish a set of books, which may be put into the hands 
of youth, as works of amusement, but which will instruct them 
fully in the history of their own country, and in that also of other 
countries in the same hemisphere." 

The four first works above mentioned, as well as 
the History of the American Revolution, are already 
published, and the others will soon appear. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

Scene of the following Adventures and Anecdotes, Descrip- 
tion of the Valley of the Mississippi, and other Territory of 
the West. Aspect of the Country in various Sections. 
Vegetable Productions. Wild Animals described. The 
Buffalo. Buffalo Hunting-. Beaver, and Beaver Trapping, 
The Brown Bear, and Grizzly Bear. The Panther. The 
Prairie Wolf. The Raccoon, Squirrel, Opossum, Elk, 
Antelope, and other Quadrupeds. Story about the Squir- 
rel's sailing across Rivers, and how the Opossum pretends 
to be dead. 9 



CHAPTER II. 

An Account of the Birds of the Western Country. The 
Prairie Hen and the Pheasant. How the wild Turkey se- 
duces the tame one. The Robin, Mocking-bird, Red-bird 
and Paroquet. Migrations of the wild Geese and Swans. 
Reptiles of the Western Country. Different Kinds of 
Snakes. Story of a Family attacked by a Company of 
Rattlesnakes. Anecdotes of the Alligator 19 



CHAPTER 111= 

A Sketch of the Character and Manners of the Western Peo- 
ple. Some Account of the Indian Tribes. Nature and Pro- 
ducts of the Soil. Modes of navigating the Mississippi. 
Scenes on board the Steam-boat 25 



CHAPTER IV. 

Other Anecdotes of the Mississippi Navigation. Scenes in 
the Bay of New Madrid. Practice of lashing Boats togeth- 
er. Shops kept on board these Boats. Quarrels between 
the Boatmen. Frolics. Steam-boat Navigation on the 
Mississippi....... 31 



6 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER V. 

Sketches of the early History of Florida. Origin of that Name. 
History of Ponce de Leon and other Adventurers. Ac- 
count of a French Colony in Florida. Wars between the 
French and Spaniards there. Discovery of the Mississippi. 
Anecdotes of the ExDedition of M. de la Salle.. 37 

CHAPTER VI. 

How La Salle erected a Fort among- the Illinois Indians. 
How his Men mutinied, and endeavored to incense the In- 
dians against him. Stories about Mausoiea, a cunning - Iro- 
quois Savage. How La Salle came very near being killed 
by Poison. Story about Mr. Dacan. Ckher Adventures of 
La Salle among the Savages. Adventures of Father Hen- 
nepin 45 

CHAPTER VH. 

The Adventures of La Salle and Father Hennepin continued. 
Interview with the Quapaw Indians. Visit the Taencas. 
Account of their Houses, Temples and Ornaments. Anec- 
dotes of the Taenca Women. Meet with other Tribes.. . . . 53 

CHAPTER VIII. 

La Salle's Voyage down the Mississippi concluded. Arrives 
at the Mouth of the River. Ceremonies on that Occasion. 
The Travellers explore the Shores of the Gulf of Mexico. 
Adventures which they meet with. Return to Canada. La 
Salle goes to France. Hennepin goes back to the West. 
Meets with La Salle's Brother, who tells him News about 
that Gentleman. Cavalier's Story 6% 

CHAPTER IX, 

Father Hennepin has more Conversation with Cavalier. The 
latter goes off upon an Expedition. Hennepin meets with 
Cousture, who tells him how La Salle was killed by some 
of his own Party. Particulars of the Murder. Other An- 
ecdotes 68 

CHAPTER X. 

Sketches of Adventures in the West after La Salle's Death. 
How New Orleans was settled. Quarrels between the 
Spaniards and the French. A bad Mistake made by the 
Spaniards, and a lar<re Party of them killed by the Indians. 
Account of the Natchez Tribe, How a Quarrel arose be- 
tween them and the French. The French massacred. The 
Natchez destroyed. , . 74 



CONTENTS. 



7 



CHAPTER XI. 

Contests between the English and French. Expedition, in 
1754 ; against the French on the Ohio. First Campaign of 
General Washing-ton. Defeat and Death of General Brad- 
dock, in 1755. Quebec taken by the English. War with 
the Cherokee Indians. General Peace in 1763 83 



CHAPTER XII. 

Sketches of Western History during the Revolutionary War. 
Skirmishes with the Indians. Adventures of American hunt- 
ing Parties in the Woods. Anecdotes of Daniel Boone, the 
great Hunter. Story about the Attack of the Indians upon 
Logan's Camp in Kentucky . . 87 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Other Adventures of Daniel Boone. He is captured by the 
Indians. How they treated him. How he escaped from 
them. Account of their Attack upon Boonesborough. An- 
ecdotes of the Siege. The Indians are driven off. 96 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Sketches of the History of Kentucky and other Sections. Ex- 
pedition by the Hunters against the Indians. Battle with 
the Savages. Story about Black Fish. Expedition of the 
English and Indians against the Kentuckians. Attack on 
Ruddle's Station. How it ended. Some of the Kentuck- 
ians carried off captive. How one of them escaped from 
the Indians 101 



CHAPTER XV. 

The Kentuckians make another Expedition against the In- 
dians in Ohio. What Effect it had. The Savages attack 
M ? Afee ; s Station. Skirmish with M'Afee, and how the lat- 
ter shot one Man in the Mouth. How the Women helped 
the Men to fight the Savages. Attack upon Bryant's Station. 
The Indians driven off. , 106 



CHAPTER XVI. 

Skirmishes with the Indians. How Women were engaged. 
Battle between a Negro and an Indian. A Family attacked 
by an Indian Party. A New England Party of Emigrants 
attacked on the Ohio River. Story about a Boy who was 
wounded. Cherokee War. Battle between Mrs. Mason 
and the Savages, in Tennessee 114 



8 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

Stories about Persons who were taken captive by the Indians. 
How Moses Hewitt was treated by them, and how he es- 
caped. Skirmish which Mr. Meigs had with a Party of 
Savages. History of the earliest settlements in Ohio. 
About Marietta. About Cincinnati. About General Put- 
nam 121 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

About the Mode of Life led by the early Settlers of the West- 
ern Country. The Process by which they reached their 
Destination. How they lived after they got there. Their 
Houses, Farms, Fences and Tools. Their Improvements 
from Year to Year ; and how Log Houses were given up 
for better ones «, 127 



CHAPTER XIX. 

Story of an Emigrant, who went out to Ohio, with his Son and 
Family, in 17/9. How the migrating Party was collected. 
How they fought off the Indians. How our Hero made his 
first Settlement, and how much Corn they raised. Moves 
to Lexington. Goes out to hunt, and survey Land. Ad 
ventures in the Woods. Story about Crawford 131 



CHAPTER XX. 

Story of the Emigrants continued. Adventure with a Bear 
The Family moves again. The Indians steal some of their 
Horses. Our young Hero joins an Expedition against the 
Enemy in 1786. His Adventures as a Soldier. Skirmish 
with the Indians. Takes some Prisoners. Story about 
Magery 140 



CHAPTER XXI, 

Account of the Christian Indians. Their Missionaries. The 
Troubles they met with. Anecdotes of their Character. 
They move to Ohio. How their Settlements were broken 



HISTORY 

OF THE 

WESTERN STATES 



CHAPTER I. 

Scene of the following Adventures and Anecdotes. De- 
scription of the Valley of the Mississippi, and other 
Territory of the West. Aspect of the Country in 
various Sections. Vegetable Productions. Wild Ani- 
mals described. The Buffalo. Buffalo Hunting. 
Beaver, and Beaver Trapping. Thx Brown Bear, and 
Grizzly Bear. The Panther. The Prairie Wolf. 
The Raccoon, Squirrel, Opossum, Elk, Antelope, and 
other Quadrupeds. Story about the SquirreVs sailing 
across Rivers, and how the Opossum pretends to be 
dead. 

The scene of most of the anecdotes and adven- 
tures of which this volume will consist, is laid in 
those states and territories which make up a large 
part of the Valley of the Mississippi River. This 
vast tract of country extends northward as far as 
the streams which run into lakes Winnipeg, Supe- 
rior, and other large bodies of fresh water in their 
vicinity. It is bounded on the south by the wind- 
ing shores of the great Gulf of Mexico, into 



JO HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 

which the Mississippi empties ; on the west, by the 
range of highlands, running parallel with the river, 
which give rise to the Arkansaw, Red and Missouri 
rivers ; and on the east, by the Alleghany ridge, 
separating it from the section of country watered 
by the Atlantic streams. Some description of this 
great territory will be a proper introduction to the 
sketches furnished in the following chapters. 

The general surface of the Mississippi Valley may 
be best described under three distinct heads— the 
thickly timbered, the barrens, and the prairie 
country. As to the first division, wherever forest 
land is met with, it is uniformly distinguished for 
the great size of the trees, the depth of verdure in 
the foliage, and the abundance of vegetable growth 
of every description. The trees are large and 
tall ; and they rise aloft, like vast columns, free 
from branches. In rich soil, they are generally 
wreathed with a drapery of ivy, grape-vines, or 
some other wild productions of the kind called 
creepers, whose tendrils and blossoms cling to the 
branches, and mingle with the broad leaves of the 
trees. 

At other times, these forests are as free from 
undergrowth as a farmer's orchard. Perhaps the 
only shrub seen among the trees is the beautiful 
pawpaw, with its shining foliage, and its bending 
and graceful stems. In other locations, there are 
thick and tangled cane-brakes, and patches of rank 
brambles and brier-vines. These, though they 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 



11 



always indicate a good soil, are the frequent and 
safe retreats of bears, panthers, and other wild 
animals of the west. 

The country called barrens has generally a 
surface undulating with moderately-sized hills of a 
particular form. They are long, regular ridges, 
mostly covered with a tall, coarse grass, and only 
here and there shaded by trees which are neither 
very large nor very small. These are oak in the 
greater number of instances. The land of the 
barrens is of an indifferent quality, as the name 
would lead one to suppose. There are large tracts 
of this kind of country in Kentucky, Tennessee 
and Alabama ; and they are also often met with in 
Illinois and Missouri. 

The prairies are of various descriptions and 
names. The " wet prairies/' so called, generally 
occur on the bodies of the great water-courses. 
Their soil is black, deep and rich, and is clothed 
with native grasses of an atsonishing height and 
luxuriance. From this circumstance, and from 
the levelness of their surface, they are sprinkled 
over with multitudes of small ponds, formed by 
rains, and only dried up, during the greatest heat of 
summer, by the power of the sun. When this hap- 
pens, and especially as the little channels connect- 
ing them with the river gradually become dry, fish 
are taken by cart-loads among the high grass, 
where the water has been three or four feet deep. 
When the waters entirely evaporate, they of course 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 



die ; and hence it is, partly, that, though thousands of 
buzzards and other birds feed upon these fish, they 
pollute the surrounding atmosphere for months, 
if not perpetually, and render a residence upon the 
prairies unpleasant and unhealthy. 

In other respects, however, and especially at 
other seasons, circumstances are more favorable to 
the health and comfort of man and beast alike. 
In the spring and autumn, innumerable flocks 
of water-fowls are seen wheeling their rounds over 
the small lakes and ponds of the prairies, finding 
abundant food in the oily seeds of the plants and 
grasses which have ripened during the summer. 
Flocks of deer scour swiftly across these rich plains, 
sometimes stopping to graze peaceably in the 
neighborhood of the settler's domestic cattle. 

During the months of vegetation, the richer 
prairies are covered with flowers and flowering 
plants and shrubs, of an almost incredible variety 
of forms, scents and hues. In the " barrens," you 
will find four or five kinds of the little flower com- 
monly called " ladies' slipper," all of the most 
splendid colors. Most of the prairie flowers have 
tall and arrowy stems ; and the blossoms are very 
large and gorgeous in appearance, though without 
much fragrance. They present different succes- 
sions of hues as the season advances. The pre- 
vailing color, in springs is bluish purple ; in mid- 
summer, red, with a considerable proportion of 
yellow ; in autumn, very generally yellow, and that 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 13 



so extensive and so rich, as to present to the 
imagination of the spectator, at a little distance, an 
immense surface of gilding. 

Such is the nature of the wet prairies. The 
" dry prairies," on the other hand, as their name in- 
dicates, are nearly destitute of streams and springs. 
These immense level plains are the pasture-ground," 
of large herds of buffaloes. They are generally 
as much without wood as without water ; and th& 
weary traveller may wander there for days, and see 
the horizon, on all sides around him, sinking to 
contact with nothing but the grass of the prairies. 

In the wide prairies on the Upper Mississippi, Mis- 
souri, Arkansaw and Red rivers, in all the space 
beyond a distance of two or three hundred miles 
from civilized settlements, the buffalo is the grand 
object of hunting, and the means of subsistence 
among the Indians, and the white hunters and 
trappers. And not only does its flesh furnish their 
food, but their dress, their couches, their seats, 
and much of the ornamental part of the furniture 
of their cabins, are made of the skins and furs. 
The former, indeed, tanned, and stretched on poles, 
are a chief article in the construction of their 
wigwams and lodges ; and the latter, under the 
common name of " buffalo robes," are an important 
article of commerce. There are very few of the 
young readers of this book, probably, who have 
not learned by experience, in the winter season, the 
comfort of a buffalo robe. 



14 HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 

The appearance of these animals is generally 
known. They are not very far from the size of 
the domestic ox. They have small horns, not 
more than four or five inches in length ; small, 
fierce-looking eyes ; bushy heads, covered with 
shaggy wool of a brownish gray color ; and a pro- 
tuberance on the shoulders, called the " hump. 5 * 
This is the choice part of the animal as an article 
of food. The beef generally, however, is nearly 
equal to that of the domestic ox, at least when 
killed at the right season, and properly preserved. 

At and about the sources of the rivers just 
named, and of many others, the beaver is a great 
object of pursuit by hunters and trappers, both 
savage and civilized. To the former, indeed, it is 
an essential means of gain and subsistence; for they 
barter the skins regularly with the white traders, 
for arms, ammunition, blankets, traps, whiskey, 
and various other objects of necessity or desire. 
Great numbers of white men, living upon the 
frontiers of civilization, repair to these distant 
regions, for the sole purpose of hunting and trap- 
ping the beaver. When they have collected and 
packed a sufficient number of the furs, they fell a 
hollow tree, launch it into some full mountain 
stream, and paddle down perhaps a thousand miles 
of the Missouri, or some other great river, to 
barter their cargoes at St. Louis, and the other 
towns and cities of the Mississippian region. 

Both the brown and the grizzly or ivhite bear 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 15 



are found in the Valley of the Mississippi ; the 
latter chiefly on the upper courses of the Missouri 
and its tributary streams. The brown bear does 
not often undertake to contend with man, face to 
face ; but the grizzly bear, instead of flying, 
pursues or attacks him with less fear than almost 
any other beast of prey. The strength of this 
animal is prodigious ; and they sometimes weigh 
considerably more than a thousand pounds. One, 
which was killed by a party of travellers, a few 
years since, measured three feet five inches about 
the head, three feet eleven inches about the neck, 
eight feet seven and a half inches in length, and one 
foot eleven inches about the fore leg. The talons 
were four and a half inches long. Fortunately, they 
are not very swift ; and as they usually range in the 
timbered regions, and do not climb as the brown 
bear does, the hunters generally escape from them 
by mounting a tree. Attacks are not often made 
upon them, and never but by several men in 
company. The fur is so much, valued, as some- 
times to sell for fifty dollars, and frequently for 
thirty. 

The panther is a ferocious animal of the cat 
kind, ranging the forests throughout the whole 
Mississippi Valley. They are of the size of the 
largest dogs, and of a darkish gray color, marked 
with black spots ; but are shaped more like the 
domestic cat, having short legs, large paws, and 
long talons, with a round head and whiskers also 
like the cat's. They purr, too, much in the same 



16 HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 

manner, when in good humor, though their night 
howl, in their fiercer moods, is the most wild and 
terrible to be conceived. They conceal themselves 
among the branches of trees, and dart, from that sit- 
uation, upon their prey. When wounded, they have 
been known to attack men ; and they seldom 
fail to attack a child, when they meet one alone. 

The prairie wolf is a small but strong animal, 
with a form much resembling that of the fox, and 
a bark and howl like those of the common dog. 
They sometimes travel in packs or droves on the 
prairies ; and their shrill and sharp bark is often 
heard at night in the hunter's solitary cabin or camp. 
It sounds like a note of defiance to the dogs of the 
cabin ; and the latter, in such cases, will retreat to- 
wards their shelter, showing signs of fear, reducing 
their bark gradually to a feeble and timid whine, and 
finally pawing at the door of the cabin for admission 
within. They are a most annoying scourge to the 
farmers, and the greatest impediment to the raising 
of sheep upon the prairies. 

The raccoon is more troublesome in the corn- 
fields : and it is a sport, preparatory to more hazard- 
ous hunting, for the farmers' boys to sally out and kill 
or capture one of these less dangerous animals in the 
night-time. 

Woodchucks and opossums abound also in the 
prairies. The latter is a lazy and stupid animal. 
Its shelter is a hollow log or tree ; and when you 
come upon one suddenly, at any distance from this 
shelter, instead of retreating for it, the opossum 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 



17 



turns over on its side, throws out its legs, and 
settles its body, eyes, and other features into a 
motionless resemblance of death. Even the hunt- 
er's dog in these cases is deceived. He applies his 
nose to the animal, paws it over, and passes it by as 
dead. So familiar is this fact among the hunters, 
that it is a common saying with them, that a man 
who takes great pains to dissemble for a particular 
purpose, is " opossuming !" 

Squirrels, gray, black and red, prey upon the 
corn-fields, adjacent to woods, in all sections of the 
valley. Farmers consider it an object, in autumn, 
when they are most troublesome, to furnish a boy 
with gun, powder and lead, on condition of his 
keeping a constant guard about the corn-fields. 
At this season, nothing is more common, in the 
hickory or beech woods, than to see half a dozen 
of these active and proud little animals, flourishing 
their erect tails, and barking, and skipping from 
branch to branch. 

There is good evidence that these squirrels 
cross rivers of considerable breadth ; sometimes 
swimming, and at other times mounting a large 
chip, or a piece of bark, and raising and spread- 
ing their tails by way of sail. In fact, the lit- 
tle navigator occasionally spreads too much can- 
vass, or ventures abroad in too much wind ; and 
so, like many a stouter and wiser voyager on the 
various waters of the earth, he is overset and 
drowned, It is related as having happened in the 
2 * 



18 HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES, 

year 1811, that they emigrated from the north 
towards the south hy thousands, marching in a 
body of some order, along the lower section of the 
state of Ohio, and the whole front of Indiana. 
Great numbers of these adventurous travellers un- 
fortunately perished, in attempting to cross the 
Ohio river. 

Large flocks of elks are found in the northern 
limits of the range of the buffalo. The elk is a 
large species of the deer, something taller than the 
horse. The antelope is another species, found 
among the remote mountains, and is a fleet and 
beautiful animal, rarely met with by the hunters. 
The mountain sheep inhabit the same tract of 
country. They are as large as the deer, are cov- 
ered with a wool like fur, and have horns of a pro- 
digious size. 

The prairie dog is so called from the supposed 
similarity of its cry to the barking of the com- 
mon dog. It is about twice as large as the gray 
squirrel, and has a large head, short ears, black 
whiskers, and a sharp nose. They are a social 
set of creatures, living upon the dry prairies 
in large communities. The hole in the ground 
which they live in, is called a burrow ; and may 
be known at some distance by the little mound at 
the entrance, which is formed by the earth heaped 
up in digging it. There are several occupants, 
probably all of the same family, in each burrow. 
In mild weather, they are seen sporting about the 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 19 



mouths of their habitations, with all the sprightli- 
ness and glee of the squirrel. At the approach of 
danger, they raise the peculiar bark which has 
given them their name ; and, after indulging in this 
clamor for a short time, retreat to their dens. When 
overtaken, away from their homes, they show all 
the ill humor of a small cur, but are easily made 
tame, gentle and affectionate. 



CHAPTER II. 

An Account of the Birds of the Western County. The 
Prairie Hen and the Phaesant. How the wild Turkey 
seduces the tame one. The Robin, Mocking-bird, Red- 
bird and Paroquet. Migrations of the ivild Geese and 
Swans. Reptiles of the Western Country. Different 
Kinds of Snakes. Story of a Family attacked by a 
Company of Rattlesnakes. Anecdotes of the Alligator. 

Among the birds of the Mississippi Valley, are 
the robin-redbreast, the blue-bird, the red-bird, the 
blue jay, the mocking-bird, the goldfinch, owl, par- 
oquet, pigeons, partridges, pheasants, turkeys, hum- 
ming-birds and prairie hens. The latter is seen in 
great flocks, in the autumn, in the prairies of Mis- 
souri and Illinois. It is rather larger than the 
domestic hen. Its colors and its shape make it a 
beautiful bird. It lights on barns, and hovers about 
cornfields, and is tamed without much difficulty. 

The pheasant is the same bird called the par- 



20 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 



tridge in New England, and the partridge the 
same with our quail. The latter are very numerous 
in many sections, and are frequently taken as they 
are crossing the rivers, on the steam-boats which 
happen to be going up or down in the way of their 
flight. A standing amusement in the western 
country is to take them by driving them into a net. 

The wild turkey is a fine, large bird, with bril- 
liant blackish plumage. These are numerous, too, 
in the vicinity of corn-fields ; and hundreds of 
them are sometimes driven from the enclosures 
of the settler. They associate readily with the 
domestic turkey ; and when the latter is reared 
near the range of the former, they are sure to 
be sooner or later enticed into the woods by them. 
The Indians, and the western sportsmen, have a 
way of hunting them to advantage by imitating the 
cry of their young, and so inducing them to come 
within reach of the musket. 

Thousands of the robin-redbreast winter in Lou- 
isiana. They perch by night in the thick cane- 
brakes, and are killed by scores with a stick. 
They do not sing so much or so well as those of 
New England ; and, indeed, none of the western 
birds are half so remarkable for their notes as for 
their plumage, size, and great numbers. 

The mocking-bird is one of the most noisy of its 
race, imitating all other birds, and heard at all 
seasons of the year. It breeds in thorn^bushes 
and among arbors of brier-vines. It delights, too, 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 21 



to sit on the tops of chimneys, now and then dart- 
ing perpendicularly, as if in a frolic, high into the 
air above, and descending by the same movement, 
singing gayly all the while. 

The red-bird inhabits the deepest forests. Its 
plumage is extremely beautiful, and its " whistle' ' 
clear, mellow and cheerful. The traveller is often 
aroused, as he rides along the borders of woods, 
of a sunny morning — and especially after frosts in 
the winter — by hearing this song softening the harsh 
scream of the jay. The male bird, at one season, 
is of a most brilliant purple color, with a fine 
showy crest, and a bill of the appearance of ivory. 

The paroquet is found from the latitude of forty 
degrees north to as far south as the Gulf of Mexico. 
Its food is the fruit of the sycamore, and its retreat 
in the hollow of that tree. It is a voracious bird, 
preying on apples, grapes, figs, and all other kinds 
of fruit. Paroquets have a hooked bill, and a splen- 
did mixture of burnished golden and green plu- 
mage on their heads ; and their bodies are covered 
with a soft brilliant green. They are said to 
perch by hanging their bill to a branch. They fly 
in large flocks, and add singularly to the magnifi- 
cence of a forest prospect, as they are seen darting 
through the foliage, and among the white branches 
of the sycamore. 

There are also swans, geese, cranes, pelicans, 
herons, ducks of various kinds, and other water- 
fowls, abounding in difTerent parts of the western 



22 HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 

country. The noise of the countless flocks of 
some of these birds, as they journey through the 
air, in the spring, to the sources of the great rivers 
and lakes, and in autumn to the Gulf of Mexico, 
is one of the most familiar and pleasant sounds. 
The swan is readily known by its stately motion, 
and its color of brilliant white. Its migrating 
phalanxes move in perfectly regular forms and 
lines, like an army. They sometimes join forces 
with the geese. Their noise, on the wing, resem- 
bles the distant sound of the trumpet. They are 
killed on the wild-rice lakes at the north in sum- 
mer, and in the Mexican Gulf and its neighboring 
waters in winter. 

Among the reptiles of the western country are 
several species of snakes not met with in the At- 
lantic states. The copper-head, so called, is a 
terrible serpent, supposed to inflict a more danger- 
ous wound than the rattlesnake. They are of a 
dirty brown color ; but when they have recently 
shed their skin, some parts of their body resemble 
burnished copper, and from this circumstance their 
name is derived. 

The moccasin snake is a sluggish animal, 
never flying or pursuing man. It is, however, a 
serpent of the largest size, and is quite as venom- 
ous as the rattlesnake. Its fang-teeth are very 
large and long. It is fortunate, that, although 
people are frequently bitten by these reptiles, the 
wound is very seldom fatal, probably because the 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 23 



remedy is better understood and applied than in 
other parts of the country. 

There is a story told of a family who had moved 
from the Eastern States, and carelessly fixed their 
hastily-built cabin on the shelving declivity of a 
ledge. It proved to be a den of rattlesnakes. 
Warmed by the first fire which was kindled upon 
the hearth of the new building, the terrible rep- 
tiles came out in their full strength, and of course 
in great rage. It was during the night, and they 
crept into the room where the whole family were 
sleeping. As often happens in these cases, some 
slept on the floor, and some upon the beds. In a 
few minutes, the snakes were in every part of the 
room. Children were stung in the arms of their 
parents, and of each other ; and thus most of this 
unfortunate family perished. Those who escaped, 
finding the whole cabin — chimney, beds, and every 
other part — occupied by these horrid tenants, hiss- 
ing, and shaking their rattles, fled from the house, 
by beating off a part of the roof. 

The alligator is an animal of more size and 
strength. It is found as far north as the thirty- 
third degree of latitude. Vast numbers are seen 
in the slow, sluggish streams and shallow lakes of 
Florida and Alabama ; but they abound still more 
on Red River. As many as forty have been count- 
ed, at one time, on a mud-bar in that river. The 
cry of a sucking pig on shore will draw a shoal of 
them from their muddy retreats at the bottom of 
the water. One was killed in the vicinity just men- 



24 HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 

tioned, a few years since, which measured sixteen 
feet from its snout to the extremity of its tail. 

As they usually move about on the water, they 
appear like old logs in motion. In fine sunny 
weather, they are seen dozing lazily on the sand- 
bars ; and so stupid or so fearless are they, that 
they allow the wheels of the passing steam-boats 
to come within a few feet of them. They are 
often fired at ; but unless they are hit in a particu- 
lar direction and place, a rifle-ball will glance from 
their bodies. If once mortally wounded, however, 
they bleed profusely, and immediately expire. 
They strike with their tails, coiled in a circular 
form ; and this blow, which is very powerful, gen- 
erally serves also to convey the wounded victim to 
the mouth of its terrible destroyer. 

Their strength of jaws is prodigious ; and their 
teeth are of such size, that the cavity in them is 
large enough to hold a musket-charge of powder, 
for which purpose they are frequently used. They 
sometimes chase children who come near them 
upon the banks ; but, luckily for the latter, al- 
though they can run straight forward with some 
rapidity, they have too short legs, and too few 
joints in the body, to turn readily either to one 
side or the other. They are said to attack a negro 
in preference to a white man. But they are 
chiefly formidable to pigs, calves, and other domes- 
tic animals. The skin of the alligator is tanned, 
and manufactured for various purposes. 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 25 



CHAPTER III. 

A Sketch of the Character and Manners of the Western 
People. Some Account of the Indian Tribes. Nature 
and Products of the Soil. Modes of navigating the 
Mississippi. Scenes on board the Steam-boat. 

Having given some account of the boundaries, 
soil, vegetable and animal productions of the Mis- 
sissippi Valley, it only remains to make a few re- 
marks upon the character and habits of the popu- 
lation. This is partly savage, and partly civilized. 
The greater part of the Indians within the United 
States, dwell in this section. In the southern parts 
of it are the Creeks, Seminoles, Baton-Rouges, 
Cherokees, Choctaws, and Chickasaws. Of 
these, the Creeks number nearly 20,000 ; and the 
Cherokees about 15,000. About a fourth part of 
the latter emigrated, some years ago, to the coun- 
try on the Arkansas River, as have also many of 
the Creeks. 

The Cherokees and Choctaws have become so far 
civilized as to use looms, ploughs, blacksmiths' shops, 
brick dwelling-houses in some instances, barns and 
taverns. They have many excellent farms and or- 
chards, public roads, magistrates, and codes of 
laws. One of the Cherokee chiefs, not long since, 
had a dozen negro slaves — a possession, however, 
not so creditable to him as his fine teams of cattle. 
He had about twenty children, living in a large 



26 HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 



and convenient house. His people were dressed, 
as most of these two nations are, in plain strong 
cotton clothes, made among themselves. 

There were, a few years since, about two thou- 
sand Indians within the limits of the state of Ohio ; 
but some of them have recently moved farther 
west. Several other tribes are found in Indiana 
and Illinois. The great body of them, however, 
are situated west of the Mississippi, in the neigh- 
borhood of all the streams, prairies and forests, 
from its source to its mouth. The number of 
tribes throughout the valley is more than fifty, and 
of individual Indians over ninety thousand. 

The increase in the civilized population of the 
western country, for the last forty years, is without 
a parallel in the history of the world. In 1790, it 
was not a great deal more than 100,000. In 1800, 
it was nearly four times that number. In 1810, it 
was something less than a million, having more than 
doubled during ten years. In 1820, the increase 
was found to have been the same up to that date ; 
for the population was then found to be more than 
two millions. The state of Ohio, which number- 
ed but about 3,000 inhabitants in 1790, contained, 
in 1820, nearly 600,000, and something like a 
million at the census taken three years sirice. 

By far the largest class of this population are 
farmers. In the states east of the Mississippi, the 
staple articles of produce are flour, corn, the 
small grains, potatoes and other vegetables, various 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 27 

kinds of fruit, beef, pork, cheese, butter, poultry, 
live cattle, hogs and horses. Tobacco is consid- 
erably cultivated in Ohio, and is a main article of 
export from Kentucky. Cattle and horses, lead 
and furs, are sent down the Mississippi, from Illi- 
nois and Missouri, to the city of New Orleans, the 
great market of the western country. Cotton is 
the chief article of cultivation in several of the 
more southern states; and in Louisiana and Florida 
sugar also is raised. 

The soil of these various states and territories 
is so fertile, the productions so abundant, and the 
conveyance of them to New Orleans so easy and 
cheap, — especially in consequence of the recent 
use of steam-boats in great numbers, — that the 
market at that place is .almost always glutted with 
produce, which comes down the river constantly 
from all parts of the Mississippi Valley. Even in 
Cincinnati, Ohio, the fair average price of corn for 
several years, by any considerable quantity, has 
not exceeded twelve and a half cents a bushel. It 
follows, too, from this abundance of corn, and from 
the great quantities of mast in the woods (as 
the natural fall of nuts and acorns in the autumn 
is called), that hogs may be raised by the thousand, 
with scarcely any cost or trouble. As might be 
expected, therefore, pork may be generally had in 
the New Orleans market for a cent and a half a 
pound. 

The modes of conveyance to this and other mar- 



28 HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 



kets are various. Within one year, more than four 
thousand large loaded wagons have been known to 
leave Philadelphia alone, for Pittsburg, a place of 
great business and wealth; and these carriages gen- 
erally return also with a load. But the greater part 
of the western commerce is carried on by means of 
boats. These are, or have been, of almost every 
conceivable size, shape and construction. 

The " barge" is about as large as an Atlantic 
schooner, with an elevated deck ; masts and rig- 
ging not differing much from those of a sea-vessel ; 
and carrying from fifty to one hundred tons bur- 
then. It requires from twenty-five to thirty hands 
to work it up stream (or rather used to require ; 
for the barge is now generally superseded by the 
more convenient steam-boat). The process of 
navigation against the current consisted in having 
two small boats, called yawls, the one in advance 
of the other, carrying forward a tow-line from the 
barge some hundred yards, making it fast to a 
tree on the bank of the river, and then drawing 
the boat up to that tree by the line. By the time 
this line was rolled up, the other yawl, in advance, 
had another prepared ; and so they went on alter- 
nately. The passage made in this manner from 
New Orleans to Cincinnati, occupied nearly one 
hundred days. It is now effected in less than a 
fortnight, for the steam-boat ascends the current 
at the rate of more than one hundred miles a day. 

Keel-boats are still used in the shallow streams, 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 29 



but not a sixth part so much as they once were. 
They are light in their construction — of long, 
slender and elegant form, and carrying between 
fifteen and thirty tons. They are propelled by 
means of oars, sails and setting-poles * and when 
the waters are high, and the boat can run along 
under bushes on the river-bank, pulling up by the 
bushes, this is called " bush-whacking." 

The ferry-boat, sometimes called a " sled," is 
flat and wide ; and when used, as it frequently is, 
as a boat of descent for families with their goods 
and furniture, has a roof or covering. The Alle- 
ghany or Mackinaw skiff is also covered, and car- 
ries from five to ten tons. Periogues, which are 
not half as capacious, are sometimes hollowed out 
from one very large tree, and sometimes from 
the trunks of two, united, and fitted with a plank 
rim. There are " horse-boats" also, of various 
constructions ; and " flat boats," w T orked by a 
wheel, which wheel is sometimes driven round by 
cattle on board, that are at the same time on their 
way to be sold at New Orleans. Boats propelled 
by " tread-wheels " are occasionally seen ; and 
now and then one is moved rapidly up stream, by 
wheels, after the steam-boat fashion, propelled by a 
man turning a crank. 

The Kentuckians have heretofore almost uni- 
versally used what they call " Kentucky flats," or 
" broad-horns." These are merely a long ark, 
with a roof of circular slope, to shed rain, They 
3* 



30 HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 

are about fifteen feet wide, and from fifty to one 
hundred feet long. Boats of this description are 
frequently fitted up, for the removal of families to 
the lower country, with comfortable apartments, 
beds, a stove, and many other domestic accommo- 
dations. One will see in them ladies, servants, 
cattle, horses, hogs, sheep, dogs, poultry, and va- 
rious kinds of vegetable produce, all floating 
on the same bottom, and destined for the same 
market. On the roof, at the same time, will be 
the looms, ploughs, spinning-wheels and other fur- 
niture of the family or families. 

There is scarcely apleasanter sight in the world, 
perhaps, than one of these boats seen from the 
shore, of a beautiful spring morning. The shad- 
owy and verdant forest, the mild and delicious 
temperature of the air, the fine azure of the clear 
sky, the green level bottom on one bank, and the 
lofty bluff on the other, all add to the grandeur of 
the broad, smooth stream. The boat floats gently 
down, with no visible danger or labor to trouble 
the few watermen who have undertaken its man- 
agement. One of them, perhaps, is scraping a 
violin, and the rest are dancing. Shouts and 
songs are exchanged between the passengers and 
the spectators upon the shore. The mellow note of 
the bugle is heard at a distance by the farmer, and, 
a moment after, the boat disappears behind some 
projecting bluff. 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 31 

CHAPTER IV. 

Other Anecdotes of the Mississippi Navigation. Scenes 
in the Bay of New Madrid. Practice of lashing 
Boats together. Shops kept on board these Boats. 
Quarrels between the Boatmen. Frolics. Steam- 
boat Navigation on the Mississippi. 

Another scene of great interest in the Missis- 
sippi navigation is to be met with in the bay or 
" bayou" of New Madrid, a town upon the Mis- 
sissippi, where navigation, both descending and 
ascending, stops on its way to or from market, as 
a sort of central point, As many as one hundred 
boats have sometimes landed here during a single 
day ; and it is impossible to look at one of them, 
without being struck with an idea of the immense 
distance they have come, as well as with the ani- 
mated picture they present in the numerous large 
and small animals which they carry — the bois- 
terous gayety of the hands — and the loud and 
constant congratulations of acquaintances who 
have met here from all sections of the country. 

In one place, you will see boats loaded with 
pine plank, from the pine forests of the south-west 
of New York, having come the entire length of 
the Ohio and Alleghany rivers. In another quar- 
ter, there are numerous water craft, bearing the 
"Yankee notions" of Ohio, a state settled in a 
large degree by emigrants from New England. 



32 HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATED 



Here are the Kentucky flats, too, with their whis- 
key, hemp, tobacco, bagging and bale-rope ; and 
with all the other articles of the produce of the 
fine Kentucky soil. 

Prom Tennessee there are the same articles, to- 
gether with boats loaded with bales of cotton ; and 
from Illinois and Missouri, cattle, horses, and the 
general produce of the western country, together 
with furs and lead from Missouri. Some boats 
are loaded with corn in bulk, or in the ear j others 
with pork in bulk, or in the shape of entire butch- 
ered hogs ; others with loads of cider, or " cider 
royal, 91 which is the same beverage, strengthened by 
boiling or freezing. Other craft are crowded with 
furniture, tools, domestic and agricultural imple- 
ments ; in short y with all the products of the inge- 
nuity, speculation, farming and manufacture of the 
whole upper country of the west. 

They have come from the Falls of St. Anthony, 
thousands of miles above, on the Mississippi ; 
from the lead mines of Rock River, or Chicago, on 
Lake Michigan ; from Tippecanoe, on the Wabash ; 
from Oleanne Point of the Alleghany ; from 
Brownsville of the Monongahela, the Saline of Ken- 
hawa, or the mountains intersected by the branches 
of the Tennessee River. These regions are sepa- 
rated from each other by immense tracts of coun- 
try ; and yet the boats have come together, as if 
by magic, to a common point of union. Their 
surfaces cover several acres of water. Domestic 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 33 

fowl, always taken with them on these long voy- 
ages, are fluttering upon the roofs. The chanti- 
cleer is heard crowing his note of triumph. The 
cattle low. Horses are heard neighing and 
trampling, as in their stables. The turkeys gob- 
ble and strut. The swine utter the cries of fight- 
ing with each other. The dogs of a hundred 
regions become intimately acquainted in the space 
of an hour. 

Meanwhile, the boatmen travel about from craft 
to craft, making inquiries and acquaintances, greet- 
ing old friends, or proposing to ** lash boats," as it 
is called, meaning to form an alliance to yield each 
other mutual assistance on the way to New Or- 
leans. After an hour or two spent in this manner, 
they spring on shore, to have some " fun and frol- 
ic' 5 in the village. If they tarry all night, as is 
generally the case, it is well for the people of the 
town, if they do not become riotous during the 
evening ; for in this case, strong measures must be 
adopted to preserve order; and these sometimes 
have the unlucky effect of producing resistance, 
confusion and clamor, if not bloodshed. 

But, early in the dawn, all is the bustle and 
movement of active business. Amidst the shouts 
of the boatmen, the trampling of cattle, the crow- 
ing, barking, squealing, neighing, lowing, and 
almost every other noise possible to be imagined, 
the whole fleet is under weigh within half an hour ; 



34 HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES 

and when the sun rises, nothing is seen from the 
shore of New Madrid, but the broad, bare, silent 
stream of the Mississippi. The boats unite again 
at Natchez, and then at New Orleans ; but after 
this, there is no prospect, and scarcely a possibili- 
ty, of their ever meeting again on the face of the 
globe. 

I have mentioned that boats are sometimes 
lashed together. This is done for the purpose of 
rendering each other assistance in the more dan- 
gerous navigation, and of enjoying each other's 
society, side by side, in the more easy. Several 
of them, fastened and floating together, as they 
sometimes are, form quite a town, and you may 
have a considerable walk over the connected roofs 
of them. 

Another object with them, occasionally, is to 
trade. One boat may supply one thing, and an- 
other boat another. Thus beef and pork are 
killed for fresh provisions. Apples, cider, nuts, 
dried fruit, whiskey, cider-brandy, and peach- 
brandy, and ( • drams" of every other description 
are retailed. In many cases, this copartnership is 
carried on with great good-will, and no little mer- 
riment. But at other times, quarrels arise ; and if 
these should fall short of blows and bloodshed, as 
they do not always, the aggrieved or offended party 
loosens itself from its troublesome neighbor, with 
a volley of abuse common upon these occasions, 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 35 

and from that time undertakes the sole manage- 
ment of its own boat. 

I have heard of so many boats thus united in 
one case — whether stationary or floating, I do not 
now recollect — that they made quite a village ; for 
there was the tavern, the retail and dram shops, 
the inhabitants of the boats, and no small number 
of merry customers besides. I have heard also of 
a large tinner's establishment moving down the 
Mississippi, comprising, in three apartments, a re- 
spectable manufactory, and a wholesale and retail 
store. When the owners had mended or sold all 
the tin which could be found or disposed of in one 
place, they floated on to another. A large black- 
smith's establishment has been managed in the 
same manner ; and, I believe, another, in which 
a trip-hammer was worked, — perhaps for the manu- 
facture of nails, and other similar articles. 

There are smaller retail trading-boats on all the 
waters of the west. These are often fitted up with 
a good deal of ingenuity and show. The goods are 
fancifully arranged upon shelves ; and the vender 
trades and talks as well about his articles, as any 
land shopkeeper in the country. Every considerable 
landing-place on the great rivers has a number of 
these stationary store-boats lying along the shores, 
particularly in the spring, when there is most occa- 
sion for them. 

But by far the most important part of the Mis- 
sissippi navigation is, at the present time, carried 



36 HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATED 

on by the aid of steam-boats, of which there are now 
several hundreds upon that river and the various 
waters connected with it, Many of these are fitted 
up in a style of great elegance as well as con- 
venience. There are double tiers of cabins on 
board of them, a separate establishment for female 
passengers, and other arrangements for the deck- 
passengers and servants, The cabin is beautifully 
finished with rich and polished wood, and furnish- 
ed with carpeting, mirrors, sliding-tables, a bar- 
room, and furniture of every kind proper for the 
accommodation of perhaps one hundred cabin 
passengers. 

The fare, too, is sumptuous. You may read, 
write, converse, walk or sleep, as you choose, 
Around you, at all times, as the boat glides swiftly 
up or down the stream, the banks are constantly 
presenting new varieties of cultivation, life and 
verdure. 

The trees, the green islands, the houses on 
shore, every thing has an appearance, as by en- 
chantment, of moving rapidly past you. The river- 
fowl are wheeling their flight above you in long 
white lines. The water is dotted over with sail-boats, 
on all sides, and of every shape, size and descrip- 
tion. You hear the tones of a bugle echoing from 
the forests ; and a column of smoke is seen ascend- 
ing behind some woody point, marking the approach 
of another steam-boat. Thus is there a continual 
novelty and excitement in the scene, and you are 
all the while drawing to the end of your voyage, at 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 



37 



the rate, even against the current, of more than 
one hundred miles a day. Such is the steam-boat 
navigation of the great Mississippi. 



CHAPTER V. 

Sketches of the early History of Florida, Origin of that 
Name. History of Ponce de Leon and other Adven- 
turers. Account of a French Colony in Florida. 
Wars between the French and Spaniards there. Dis- 
covery of the Mississippi. Anecdotes of the Expedition 
of M. de la Salle. 

Having given you some idea of the extent of 
the Valley of the Mississippi, and of the character 
and manners of its population, I can now proceed 
to the early annals of this vast, fertile and beauti- 
ful tract. I shall begin with the general history 
of the country, without allusion to particular states 
or territories. The obvious reason is, that there 
were, of course, no such divisions at the date of 
discovery ; nor were there any for a great many 
years afterwards. Indeed, although something 
has been known of certain small parts of this im- 
mense valley for more than three hundred years, 
almost all its wealth business and population 
have sprung up, as we have seen, and shall see 
still further, within the last forty years. 

Florida is a part of the valley, properly speak- 
ing ; and this country was discovered as early as 
4 



38 HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES, 

1512, by Juan Ponce de Leon, an adventurous 
and credulous Spaniard, who entertained a singu- 
lar but very sanguine expectation of finding, in 
that unexplored region, a fountain, whose waters 
were supposed to have the power of changing old 
age into youth. He first made the shores of Flor- 
ida on Easter day, and gave the country the name 
which it still bears. It is a Spanish word, signify- 
ing the " Country of Flowers and was suggested 
by the abundance of verdure, and of foliage, which 
were every where seen upon the coast. Juan found 
no fountain ; but he met with fierce savages in 
considerable numbers, and they treated him and 
his crew so roughly, that they were very glad to 
escape with their lives. 

Several other Spaniards made attempts, after 
this, to explore the interior of Florida. One of 
them was Ferdinand de Soto, governor of the 
island of Cuba. This gentleman formed a plan of 
conquering and settling the country. He sailed 
from Havana with a fleet of nine ships, nearly 
one thousand men, several hundred horses, and 
live stock of various kinds. He landed this force 
safely, but was attacked by the natives of Florida 
immediately after, and continued to fight with 
them, as he made his way into the interior. He 
advanced as far as the Mississippi on this occa- 
sion, and was probably the first white man who 
ever beheld that noble stream. He sickened and 
died in the neighborhood of Red River. He had 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 



39 



at this time rendered himself such an object of 
terror and hatred to the Indians, that, in order to 
prevent the knowledge of his death, and so pre- 
serve his remains from violation, his comrades 
thought proper to enclose his body in the hollow 
section of an oak tree, and then sink it in Red 
River. As for themselves, they made the best of 
their way out of the country as fast as possible, 
and returned to Cuba. 

In 1564, a French colony was planted, and a 
fort built eastward of the Bay of St Joseph, in 
Florida. The fort was called " Fort Charles," in 
honor of the king of France. The colony suffered 
much from mutiny, famine, and fear of the sav- 
ages. But this was not the worst of it. They 
were attacked, the very next season, by a Spanish 
West Indian force, which had been commissioned 
by the king of Spain, — that country and France 
being then at war, — to root out the French here- 
tics from Florida, and plant good Spanish Catholics 
in their place. 

These French people, it should be understood, 
were called heretics, because they were Protestants, 
and had left France to avoid persecution, precisely 
as the pilgrims of Plymouth left England during 
the next century. The Spaniards attacked the 
fort, and carried it by storm. All that escaped the 
sword were immediately hung, with this inscrip- 
tion labelled on their backs — " Not as French- 



40 HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 

men, but as heretics, enemies of God and the 
Virgin." 

When the tidings of this bloody massacre reach- 
ed France, a private gentleman, of good family and 
fortune, named Dominique de Gourgues, deter- 
mined to avenge the death of his unfortunate coun- 
trymen by his own private means. He fitted out 
a small armament, sailed over to Florida, enlisted 
a considerable number of the natives as allies, at- 
tacked the fort, and, after some severe fighting, 
carried it by storm. All the Spaniards that sur- 
vived the capture were hung on the very same 
trees where the poor Protestants had so miserably 
perished the season previous ; and this label was 
fastened upon their backs — " Not as Spaniards or 
soldiers, but as traitors and assassins." Having 
attained his object, Gourgues returned to France. 

Several years elapsed before we hear again of 
the French in North America. In 1608, however, 
a fleet arrived in the River St. Lawrence, com- 
manded by admiral Champlaine (from whom the 
lake was afterwards named). The now important 
city of Quebec was then founded ; and it soon be- 
came, as it has long continued to be, one of the 
most busy and flourishing places on the con- 
tinent. 

The River Mississippi was barely seen and cross- 
ed, perhaps, as we have noticed, by Ferdinand de 
Soto. The French of Canada had the honor of 
first exploring it. Joliet, an inhabitant of Quebec, 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 41 

and Father Marquette, were employed by the Ca- 
nadian intendant, or governor, in this enterprise. 
They ascended the Fox River, descended the Ouis- 
consin (or Wisconsin), and entered the Missis- 
sippi on the seventeenth of June, 1673. They fol- 
lowed the current to the Arkansas River, and then 
turned about, without having ascertained the 
length of the Mississippi, or the place of its dis- 
charge. They went by way of Illinois River, and 
reentered Lake Michiganat Chicago. My read- 
ers will find all these names on their maps of 
North America. 

The next enterprise of this nature was under- 
taken in 1679, by M. de la Salle, a Frenchman, and 
the commandant of Fort Frontmac, on Lake On- 
tario. He was a man of rank, courage and tal- 
ents, besides being adventurous, ambitious and 
needy. He equipped a small vessel, called the 
Griffin^ at the lower end of Lake Erie, and com- 
menced his expedition from that place, with a com- 
pany consisting of Louis Hennepin (a Franciscan 
friar), and thirty-four other persons, among whom 
were pilots, carpenters, smiths, and other useful 
artisans. Many incidents in this spirited and 
hazardous voyage are so well worthy of a particu- 
lar notice, that I shall devote several of the follow- 
ing chapters to this subject. 

After exploring the shores of several of the 
northern lakes, and forming some acquaintance 
with the natives, M. de la Salle concluded to pass 
4* 



42 HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES, 



the winter near the mouth of the Miami River, where 
he built a fort, and furnished it with good means of 
defence. His next object was to treat with the Il- 
linois tribe of Indians, the nearest of whose settle- 
ments were three hundred miles distant. 

With this view, he himself and Hennepin started 
Upon a fresh expedition early in December, taking 
with them about forty men, and leaving only ten 
behind them, as a garrison. They travelled by land 
four days, carrying their canoes and stores upon 
their shoulders, until they reached the Illinois River, 
where their water-passage commenced. The banks 
of that fine stream were at this time covered with 
all the wild magnificence of nature. The meadows, 
fruit-trees and forests afforded every thing which 
was necessary to the sustenance of man or beast, 
and constantly delighted the eye of the traveller 
with their wonderful and various beauty. 

At the first Illinois village which they saw in de- 
scending the river, no inhabitants were found at 
home, although it consisted of as many as five hun- 
dred cabins. These were log-huts, interlaced with 
branches, and covered with bark. Within, they 
were finished with considerable neatness — both the 
walls and the floor being generally matted. Each 
of them consisted of two apartments, and most of 
them were provided with a cellar or vault under- 
neath, where their ( Indian corn' was preserved. 

The voyage was now continued, for the distance 
of about one hundred miles, until the travelling party 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 43 

found themselves between two bodies of Indians, 
encamped on both sides of the river. No sooner 
had the latter discovered the strangers upon the 
water, than a great bustle was observed among them. 
They ran to their arms, sent away their wives and 
children into the woods, and arranged themselves 
in order of battle. The whites also put themselves 
in a posture of defence, by bringing their canoes 
into a regular line abreast of each other, and in 
that manner advancing towards the shore. They 
made signs of peace and friendship, however ; and 
the Indians, who were Illinois, observing these, soon 
became less hostile in their appearance, and con- 
tented themselves with inquiring of the Indian in- 
terpreter whom the whites had among them, the 
character and designs of his civilized comrades. 

The interpreter replied, that they were subjects 
of the king of France, and had come to make known 
to the Illinois the Master of heaven and earth (the 
Deity), as well as to offer them the protection of the 
French monarch. Commerce and social and friendly 
intercourse were also proposed, and the whole con- 
versation carried on so much to the satisfaction of 
the pleased and wondering savages, that they soon 
concluded to welcome the new comers in a very 
handsome and hospitable style. They expressed 
their veneration for the character of the French 
king, as they heard him described. They then 
presented their guests with the calumet, or pipe of 
peace, to smoke in pledge of friendship. 



44 HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 

The latter took particular pains, on the other 
hand, to strengthen these amicable dispositions, by 
manifesting all the ceremonies, compliments, and 
demonstrations of joy and good-will, for which 
Frenchmen in all countries are generally distin- 
guished. They told the Illinois that necessity had 
compelled them to take a small quantity of corn 
from the cellars of the deserted village they had met 
with above ; but they now made amends for this 
trespass by presents of brandy and various toys and 
gewgaws. With these the Indians were exceedingly 
delighted, and they presently sent for their wives 
and children from the woods, and prepared to en- 
tertain their guests with a grand entertainment of 
stag-meat and all sorts of venison, besides fish, fruit 
and wild game. 

The feast, which soon after commenced, con- 
tinued for three days, during which time the French 
furnished a liberal supply of brandy, much to the 
gratification, though (it is to be feared) not at all to 
the benefit, of the Illinois. They also made repeated 
discharges of their fire-arms, by way of honorary 
salutes, at which the Indians were at first greatly 
alarmed, but afterwards still more amused. The fa- 
miliar titles of friend, brother, and comrade, were in- 
terchanged between the parties, and some of the 
French young men were adopted as sons by some 
of the Illinois warriors, with a variety of ceremo- 
nies and an abundance of parade. 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 



45 



CHAPTER VI. 

How La Salle erected a Fort among the Illinois Indians, 
How his Men mutinied, and endeavored to incense the 
Indians against him. Stories about Mausolea, a cunning 
Iroquois Savage. How La Salle came very near being 
killed by Poison. Story about Mr. Dacan. Other Ad- 
ventures of La Salle among the Savages. Adventures 
of Father Hennepin. 

As M. de la Salle proposed to tarry some time 
with the Illinois, he thought it the best policy for 
him to erect a fort ; and this task, therefore, was 
immediately undertaken. But he had less to ap- 
prehend from the Indians than from his own men, for 
some of the latter were becoming discontented and 
mutinous. They were weary with their long wander- 
ings, and tired of the restraint of good discipline 
which he imposed upon them. They carried this 
feeling so far, indeed, as to contrive a plot for get- 
ting rid of him altogether. 

Not having the hardihood to attempt this by direct 
violence upon his person, they used all the means 
which their ingenuity could suggest, to inflame the 
minds of the Illinois against him. They asserted that 
he had formed an alliance with their ancient enemies, 
the Iroquois Indians ; that he had penetrated thus 
far into their country only with the view of learning 
their strength ; that the fort he had built was de- 
signed to forward this grand design against them ; 



46 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 



and that there could be no doubt of his taking the 
first fair opportunity of surprising and destroying 
them by a sudden attack. 

It is not strange that these artful falsehoods should 
have their effect on the minds of the Indians. La 
Salle observed, accordingly, before many days, that 
their conduct and appearance towards him were 
entirely changed. He was shrewd enough, howev- 
er, to suspect the source of the difficulty, and cour- 
ageous and prompt enough to meet it without hesi- 
tation. He addressed himself upon the subject to 
the leading Illinois warriors, and they finally told 
him every thing they had heard from his men. The 
information surprised and shocked him, but he 
succeeded in satisfying them of his entire innocence 
of the charges alleged by his men. 

But the storm, though blown over for the moment, 
soon came on again with renewed fury. A 
cunning and wily savage had arrived among the 
Illinois, who had been secretly commissioned and 
instructed by the Iroquois, just mentioned. The lat- 
ter nation were rivals of the former, and their object 
now was to create a jealousy between the Illinois 
and the French, for fear that the acquaintance of 
the two nations might otherwise prove too beneficial 
and agreeable. What they dreaded most was, that 
the French should furnish the Illinois with fire-arms. 

Mausolea addressed the Illinois in public and pri- 
vate, with such success, that he soon brought them 
to believe once more all the calumnies of La 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 47 

Salle's men, with several fresh ones in addition. 
Having a hint of these proceedings, La Salle rose 
early one morning, and entered the Illinois settle- 
ment, which was not far from his fort. They were 
assembled there in great numbers, and there ap- 
peared to be no little uproar and clamor among them. 
Not a man of them would speak to the Frenchman 
as he came among them. He saw plainly, in fact, 
that it was a critical moment with him. But, un- 
daunted by their evident symptoms of hostility, he 
advanced boldly into the midst of the multitude, and 
addressed them with the firm, loud voice of a man 
who knew neither fear, guilt or suspicion. 

" Friends !" said he, " I cannot but wonder at 
this strange conduct of yours. We parted like 
brothers last night, and this morning I find you 
almost in arms against me. What new crime 
have I committed 1 Or, rather, what new impostor 
has incensed you against me 1 Be that as it may, 
I surrender myself into your hands, for trial or for 
punishment. Do with me as you like — I am at your 
mercy. " 

The rude savages, fierce as they were, could not 
but respect La Salle for his courage; and they began 
again to think that they might have been deceived 
even a second time. He followed up his advantage 
by calling upon Mausolea, of whose calumnies the 
Illinois now informed him, to prove his charges, or 
to show the least foundation for them. This he 
was unable to do : and the consequence was, that 



48 HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 

friendship and confidence were rapidly restored be- 
tween La Salle and the Illinois. 

He now turned all his thoughts upon the comple- 
tion of his first design of exploring the Mississippi. 
But the mutineers, whom we have already mentioned 
as being a part of his garrison, were unwilling to 
think of any further labors or dangers of this kind. 
They determined, therefore, to put an end to his 
enterprise and his life, at once, by poisoning him and 
his best friends. Christmas-day was selected for 
the consummation of this villanous plan. 

They found means to poison his dinner by min- 
gling some fatal herb with it in the pot ; and of this 
he and several of his friends ate without suspicion. 
But, finding themselves attacked very soon with vi- 
olent symptoms, and all with the same, they were 
not long either in guessing at the cause of their ill- 
ness, or applying an effectual antidote. This was 
treacle — a good dose of which entirely counteracted 
the strength of the poison, so that every one of them 
recovered. 

Still undiscouraged, La Salle applied himself 
again to the grand object of his ambition. He sent 
off a Mr. Dacan, with three Frenchmen and two sav- 
ages, for the purpose of exploring the country along 
the Mississippi River to the northward. This party 
embarked on the Illinois River, February 28, 1680, 
pursued their voyage down the stream into the Mis- 
sissippi, and then ascended the latter river more than 
one thousand miles, until they came within about 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 49 

twenty miles of its source. This expedition was 
the work of many months ; and La Salle, mean* 
while, was engaged in a series of singular adven- 
tures. It may be well to speak of these with some 
minuteness, leaving Dacan for the present to pur- 
sue his remote and lonely travels in the north-west. 

On the 8th of November (1680), La Salle set out, 
with some of his companions, for Fort Frontenac. 
on the Canadian frontier, where he wished to hasten 
the building of a new vessel. On the third day, he 
arrived at the large village of the Illinois, of which 
I have already spoken at some length. Here he 
erected a fort, with the view of thus keeping check 
upon the Indians in this vicinity. It will be seen, 
however, that the fort was of very little benefit to 
him in the end. 

Having completed this labor, La Salle proceeded 
upon his journey He had not gone many miles, 
when he met two of his men, whom he had sent to 
Canada two months before, to get intelligence as to 
the vessel which was building for him. They now 
pretended to have done their utmost to find out 
what had become of the vessel, but without success. 
The fact was, that the rogues had burned her them- 
selves, and had sold all the articles on board of her 
which were worth selling, to the Iroquois Indians. 
What was worse, they had made such statements to 
these savages, concerning La Salle and his French 
comrades, as undoubtedly had a great effect in bring- 
ing on the hostilities which I am now about to relate. 
5 



50 HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 

It was in September of the year 1681, when La 
Salle and his good friend Friar Hennepin one day 
discovered, within a mile of the Illinois village in 
whose vicinity the fort stood, an army of about six 
hundred Iroquois Indians. They had just arrived, 
and were armed with bows, swords, halberds, and a 
great many with fire-arms — all but the bows, purchas- 
ed either of La Salle's men, no doubt, or of various 
Canadian traders. Both the Illinois and the French 
were startled by this sudden and suspicious appear- 
ance of these ancient enemies of both their nations, 
especially as they came in such force. In this 
emergency, Hennepin bravely proposed to the Illi- 
nois, to go to the Iroquois encampment, and ascer- 
tain the object of their visit. The offer was accept- 
ed gladly, and an interpreter and an Illinois chief 
were ordered to accompany Hennepin, and to act 
as witnesses of his proceedings. 

Some defence against a sudden attack was now 
provided for, by hastily mustering the Illinois war- 
riors, about five hundred in number. The twenty-five 
Frenchmen who remained in the fort at this time were 
also stationed among their various ranks and lines, 
with the view of encouraging, animating and arming 
them properly for the contest which was thought to 
be approaching. Meanwhile, Hennepin advanced 
towards the Iroquois army, with his Illinois attend- 
ants, and with two Frenchmen also in company. 

As the enemy fired a shot or two at them, how- 
ever, upon their near approach, Hennepin sent back 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 51 



all these men excepting the interpreter, and resolved 
to meet the danger of his enterprise alone. He now 
raised a wampum-belt, as a signal of friendship ; and, 
trusting in the respect which was usually paid among 
the savages to the bearers of a badge like this, he ad- 
vanced boldly into the midst of the Iroquois. Sev- 
eral of them immediately seized upon him. One of 
them took the belt from him ; another even attempt- 
ed to stab him with a knife ; and nothing, indeed, 
saved the life of Hennepin, but the lucky accident 
that the weapon came in contact with a rib, and 
thus only gave him a bad wound. At this moment, 
some of the less violent of the Iroquois warriors, 
who stood around him, interfered, rescued him from 
the hands of these blood-thirsty ruffians, and, having 
applied a sort of balsam to stanch the blood which 
streamed from his side, conducted him and the in- 
terpreter to the chief camp of the army. 

Here, in the midst of a large multitude of the 
Iroquois, he was called upon, by one of their chiefs, 
to declare the object of his visit. He proceeded 
immediately to state the surprise occasioned by 
their sudden appearance, and to use all the argu- 
ments he could think of to dissuade them from any 
further hostility. But at this very time, the two ar- 
mies of the Iroquois and the Illinois had commenced 
skirmishing with each other in a different part of the 
field. One of the former came running, in a few 
moments, with the information that the Illinois were 
mustering a much greater force than had been 



52 HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 

expected, and were also very much aided by the 
Frenchmen. 

This intelligence came at an unlucky time for 
Hennepin. The Indians around him were so in- 
censed, that they stood ready to fall upon him forth- 
with with violent hands. Indeed, they were already 
proposing to do so ; and one young savage, who stood 
close behind Hennepin, with an open and naked razor 
in his hand, put his arm more than once over the 
Frenchman's head. No doubt he was expecting, 
every moment, an opportunity to kill and scalp him. 
But, fortunately, some debate took place among the 
warriors, and it was finally concluded to send Hen- 
nepin back to the Illinois, with a wampum-collar in 
his hands, as an emblem of good-will, and an offer of 
peace. 

The Illinois were of course very willing to meet 
these amicable proposals half way ; and for some 
days matters went on apparently much to the satis- 
faction of both parties. A treaty of peace was ef- 
fected through the mediation of Hennepin ; and the 
conduct of this worthy gentleman, upon that occa- 
sion, gave particular satisfaction to the Iroquois. 
They sent for him to their camp, on the 10th day 
of September, and presented him with six packs of 
beaver-skins. Two of these, they said, were in- 
tended to be given to Count Frontenac, the govern- 
or of Canada, as an assurance that they would no 
more trouble his children, the Illinois. The others 
were designed as some compensation for the ill treat- 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 53 



ment which Hennepin had received among them on 
his first visit, and especially "as a plaster for the 
wound in his side." Thus ended, for the present, 
the invasion of the Iroquois. 



CHAPTER VII. 

The Adventures of La Salleand Father Hennepin continued. 
Interview with the Quapaw Indians. Visit the Taencas. 
Account of their Houses, Temples and Ornaments. An- 
ecdoies of the Taenca Women. Meet with other Tribes. 

My readers will recollect that La Salle and Hen- 
nepin, with their companions, left Canada with the 
intention of exploring the River Mississippi. As yet, 
however, little was done towards this important ob- 
ject; nor was it until the 24th of January, 1683, 
that they commenced their long-proposed voyage 
down the Illinois. They reached the Mississippi on 
the 2d of February. This part of the expedition, 
notwithstanding the severity of the season, was 
made sufficiently agreeable by the safety and ease of 
the navigation down the stream of the Illinois, the 
clear weather, the scenery upon the banks, and espe- 
cially the great abundance of game every where met 
with. Stags, buffaloes, rabbits, foxes and beavers, in 
particular, were seen in great numbers, on all sides. 

The first tarrying-spot of the travelling party on 
the Mississippi, which they now descended, was at a 
place about two hundred miles below the mouth of 
5 * 



54 HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 

the Wabash. Here La Salle found an Indian nation 
who could muster about two thousand warriors. 
They had plenty of corn, grapes, olives and other 
fruits, and various domestic fowl. He was received 
among them with all possible hospitality, and this he 
requited by distributing liberal presents of knives 
and hatchets. 

From this place he again embarked upon the 
broad stream of the mighty river, now, for the first 
time, navigated by a party of Europeans. On the 
fourth day, he came to a village of an Indian tribe, 
called the Cappa, or Quapaws. Scarcely had he set 
foot on land, however, in the neighborhood of this 
village, when he heard a loud noise, which he sup- 
posed to be intended for an alarm or signal of at- 
tack among the natives. He and his men immedi- 
ately threw themselves again into their canoes, made 
their way over the river as fast as possible, and set 
themselves instantly to raising a sort of rude redoubt 
as a defence against the enemy, whom they imagined 
to be by this time following close after them. 

But in this supposition they were somewhat pre- 
mature. A few of the Quapaws came out upon 
the river, indeed, in their canoes; but their only 
object seemed to be to satisfy their curiosity. As 
they sat gazing silently at the strangers, whose 
color, dress and whole appearance were matters of 
such novelty and surprise to them, La Salle took 
courage, and sent out a messenger to offer them 
the calumet, or pipe of peace, to smoke. They 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 55 

accepted it readily, and, at the same time, offered 
to conduct the French party to their village, and to 
show them every attention, and render them every 
service, in their power. 

La Salle gladly availed himself of this kindness ; 
and, with a few of his comrades, immediately set 
off for the village, accompanied and guided by one 
of the Quapaws. Another of them had been sent 
forward, meanwhile, to give notice at the village 
of what had passed ; and accordingly it was not 
long before the prince or head-sachem of the Q,ua- 
paws was seen coming down towards the river, 
with several of his leading warriors, to meet the 
new visitants. The former saluted La Salle, the 
moment he saw him, in a very grave and respectful 
manner. He then offered him any service in his 
power to render, and took him by the hand and 
led him into the village towards his own royal lodge 
or wigwam. La Salle embraced that opportunity 
to explain the motives of his journey to the best 
advantage, and especially to enlarge upon the dig- 
nity and power of his own sovereign, the king of 
France. 

A crowd of the Quapaws now assembled around 
the prince and his new guests ; and among the rest 
was a company of bowmen, who had been apparently 
directed to perform the honors of a military guard. 
The prince addressed them in an animated speech. 
He told them, with especial emphasis, that the 
strangers were subjects of the king of France ; and 



56 HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 



that they had been sent out for the purpose of vis- 
iting them, and offering them his most gracious 
friendship and protection. The Quapaws heard 
this declaration with great pleasure, and they testi- 
fied it, the moment he ceased speaking, by a 
loud and universal acclamation. Afterwards La 
Salle was taken by the prince to his wigwam, hand- 
somely entertained, and finally supplied, at his de- 
parture, with an abundance of Indian corn, fruits 
and other provisions. 

On reembarking upon the river, La Salle and his 
party continued to descend it for several days, only 
stopping for an hour or two occasionally at various 
Indian villages on the banks. Among a tribe called 
the Taencas, however > they made a longer stay. 
This tribe resided in a neat village, consisting of 
small cabins covered over with mats of cane, and 
arranged, in the form of squares, around a common 
green space in the centre. 

There were two buildings in these little settle- 
ments of more splendid appearance, one of which 
the travellers soon ascertained to be the house of the 
prince or head-sachem, and the other the temple of 
the tribe. They were about forty feet square, each ; 
the walls ten feet high, and two feet thick ; and the 
roof raised in the form of a cupola, and covered 
with mats stained with various colors. A small 
guard of warriors, as the French party approached 
the village, were seen standing before the door of 
the prince's house, armed with half pikes or staves. 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 57 



Hennepin had been sent forward by La Salle, 
to give information of the intended visit of the 
French travellers. As soon as he came up, accord- 
ingly, an old warrior stood ready to receive and 
welcome him. He saluted him politely, took him 
by the hand, and led him into a great square hall, 
which was a part of the prince's house. The floor 
and walls of it were covered with a finely-woven 
and well-painted mat ; and at the farther end of 
it, opposite the entrance, was a handsome bed, with 
curtains around it, which were afterwards ascertain- 
ed to be woven of the mulberry-tree bark. 

This bed or couch seemed to be used as a sort 
of throne, for the prince of the Taencas was sitting 
upon it, in the midst of several women, who appeared 
to Hennepin to be particularly beautiful. There were 
also nearly sixty old warriors around him, armed 
with bows and arrows, and all clothed with fine white 
garments. That of the prince himself was decorated 
with tufts and tassels of wool or cotton stained various 
colors ; the others were plain and without ornament. 

The former also wore upon his head something 
which was probably intended for a royal diadem. 
It was a circlet of woven rushes, very curiously 
wrought, and enriched with what appeared to be 
pearls, and with a plume of many-colored feathers. 
His warriors were all bare-headed. The women were 
clothed in garments of the same stuff with those of 
the males. On their heads they had little rush hats, 
adorned with several large feathers. 



58 HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 

They wore also necklaces of pearl, or of what 
looked like pearl, ear-pendants of the same, and 
bracelets on their arms of woven hair. Their com- 
plexion was that of the Indians of this latitude gen- 
erally ; their faces rather flat^ but their eyes black, 
sparkling and pretty large ; their shape elegant, and 
their movements graceful and free. On the whole, 
Hennepin thought them some of the handsomest 
women he had ever seen, let their color be what it 
might. 

When he was sufficiently recovered from the first 
embarrassment of his reception, and the surprise oc- 
casioned by the scene before him, he addressed him- 
self to the prince. This was done, as in most other 
cases of a similar nature, by the. aid of an interpreter ; 
each nation which they visited, on their voyage 
down the Mississippi, furnishing, when requested, a 
guide and interpreter to assist them in their inter- 
course with the next. 

Having sufficiently explained the objects of the 
voyage in the name of La Salle, and tendered to the 
prince the compliments of that gentleman, he gave 
him a sword inlaid with gold and silver, some cases of 
razors, scissors and knives, and some bottles of a 
certain kind of ardent spirit. These articles were 
accepted with evident marks of great satisfaction ; 
but Father Hennepin could not forbear turning away 
from the prince at this moment, to observe the be- 
havior of one of his handsome wives. She had 
taken a pair of scissors in her hand, and seemed to 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 59 

admire exceedingly the neatness of the workman- 
ship and the beauty of the material. Now and then, 
as she looked at them again and again, she would 
cast a sly glance at the Frenchman, who, as the 
owner of such pretty things, appeared to her the 
most fortunate and the most important man in the 
world. 

The latter was too gallant and generous, not to 
take the hint so plainly given, and to act accord- 
ingly. He soon found an opportunity to approach 
her side, unobserved by the rest of the company. 
Then, drawing from his pocket a small steel case 
of filligree-work, in which were a pair of scissors 
and a little tortoise-shell knife, and pretending at the 
same time to be examining and admiring the color 
and fashion of the lady's mantle, he slipped the 
case into her hand. She received it with a know- 
ing look and a sly smile, which at once convinced 
him of her gratitude. 

Soon afterwards, another of the women, very 
neatly dressed, and not less beautiful than the for- 
mer, came up softly to the strangers, and gave them 
to understand, by the thorns she showed them, 
that pins would serve a much better purpose for 
fastening her garments together. They presented 
her with a paper full of them, and also with a case 
of needles, and a silver-plated thimble, all which 
she received with marks of unbounded joy. 

Two others were afterwards gratified with simi- 
lar attentions ; and one of these, by way of evincing 



60 HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 

her thankfulness, having noticed that Father Hen- 
nepin seemed to be pleased with a large bead-col- 
lar which hung about her neck, took it off, and 
made him a polite offer of it. After some hesita- 
tion, he accepted it, and gave her in return ten 
yards of blue ribbon. 

Being civilly invited to remain over night, the 
Frenchman, during that time, found an opportunity 
to visit the temple of these people, the structure of 
which he found to be similar to that of the prince's 
house. It was surrounded with a high and stout 
wall, between which and the temple was a consid- 
erable space for visitors and worshippers to walk 
in. On the top of this wall were several staves, 
standing erect, on which used to be fixed the heads 
of criminals executed by order of the prince, or of 
enemies taken in war ; in another place, a heap of 
scalps, apparently preserved as a trophy. Inside 
of the temple was a sort of hearth, in the midst of 
the earthen floor, on which three large billets of 
wood, standing up on end, were constantly kept 
burning, under the care of two priests dressed in 
white. A kind of closet, cut out of the wall, was 
said to be the place where all the treasures of the 
tribe were stored ; but this the strangers were not 
permitted to examine. 

Having satisfied his curiosity, Hennepin went 
back to La Salle, and gave him a full account of all 
he had witnessed and heard. Not long afterwards, 
the prince himself, attended by a party of his peo- 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 61 



pie, came out in canoes to visit him. A long and 
formal interview ensued, which ended with La 
Salle's presenting him with a variety of trinkets, 
sweet fruits, and other things, and receiving in re- 
turn from the prince six of his richest fur robes, a 
bead-collar, and a boat full of provisions. When 
the Indian party moved off, a salute of musketry 
was fired by the French ; and so ended the visit. 

The voyagers now continued their way down the 
river. During the next day, perceiving a large 
Indian log canoe approaching them, though at some 
distance, La Salle directed Hennepin to give chase 
with his boat, which he did. But presently above 
one hundred men made their appearance on the 
shore near by, and La Salle loudly called out for 
his friend to come back. He did so, and after- 
wards went ashore with the calumet, or Indian 
peace-pipe, in his hand. The Indians received 
him kindly, and La Salle followed him, and was 
treated in the same manner. The Frenchmen af- 
terwards attended the Indians home : they found 
them to belong to the tribe of the Natchez, who 
occupied a territory about sixty miles across, and 
were able to muster three thousand men for war. 

Their land was well cultivated, producing In- 
dian corn and various other grains and fruits in 
abundance, although fishing and hunting were the 
chief employment of the people. 
6 



62 HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 



CHAPTER VIIL 

La Salle's Voyage down the Mississippi concluded. Ar- 
rives at the Mouth of the River. Ceremonies on that 
Occasion. The Travellers explore the Shores of the 
Gulf of Mexico. Adventures which they meet with. 
Return to Canada. La Salle goes to France. Hen- 
nepin goes back to the West. Meets with La Salle's 
Brother, who tells him .Yews about that Gentleman. 
Cavalier's Story. 

Continuing their voyage down the Mississippi, 
with occasional adventures among the natives on 
either bank, the whole party finally reached the 
mouth of that great river, on the 7th of April, 1683, 
which, being the first occasion of the kind known 
to have happened among civilized men, was cele- 
brated with no little pomp and parade as a memo- 
rable event. Indeed, to have performed a voyage 
of over 2,000 miles, with such boats, and so small 
a company, on a river never before explored, and 
the shores of which were thickly inhabited by un- 
known savage nations, was certainly in itself an 
exploit to be proud of. The party united in 
thanksgiving to Almighty God for their preserva- 
tion ; sang a hymn together upon the sea shore ; 
and then, packing their canoes and baggage upon 
sledges made for the purpose, set up a few rude 
huts as a temporary shelter, a little distance from 
the sea. 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 63 

The party made several exploring expeditions in 
the vicinity ; and they found that, a few miles back 
from the sea, it was one of the pleasantest coun- 
tries in the world. There were fine large mead- 
ows, groves of mulberry-trees, various kinds of 
nuts, and a soil so fertile as to produce two crops 
of corn yearly, almost without cultivation. In the 
ponds and rivers, also, were vast quantities of wild 
geese, ducks, teal, moor-hens, partridges, pheasants, 
quails, and other fowl ; beside four-footed game of 
different kinds, and especially a large animal with 
a hump on his shoulders, running in herds, which 
doubtless was the same now called the buffalo. 

The party commenced their return up the Mis- 
sissippi on the 11th of April, there being now 
about sixty of them in number. Their provisions 
failing, they were obliged for a time to feed on the 
flesh of " crocodiles," as they called them, which 
we commonly, in modern times, call alligators. 
They found this flesh white, firm, and about as 
good as salmon ; so that they lived upon it quite 
contentedly for several days. No doubt hunger 
gave it an additional relish. A tribe of savages, 
called the " Quinipissas," treated them rather rude- 
ly ; and a skirmish ensued, in which several of the 
enemy were killed. 

Their old friends, the Natchez, and especially 
the prince, received them with more kindness. So 
also did the Taencas, and other tribes. The 
whole party reached Michilimackinac in the course 
of the ensuing month of September. 



64 HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 



La Salle was very anxious to report to the king 
and court of France the discoveries he had made, 
and the adventures he had met with, in the wilds 
of America ; and, therefore, soon after his return 
to Quebec, he sailed for that country. From this 
time, for several years, his friends who remained 
in Canada and the West, and Hennepin among 
the number, heard nothing from him, or even of 
him, until, indeed, they began to be apprehensive 
that he had met with some fatal accident in 
the course of his voyage to France. Afterwards 
they ascertained, by indirect information, that he 
had reached that country in safety, but had subse- 
quently left it again for the mouth of the Mississippi, 
by way of the Gulf of Mexico, since which nothing 
was known of his fortunes or his fate. 

Such was the state of affairs in May of the year 
1687, when Father Hennepin travelled once more 
across the western wilderness, from Michilimacki- 
nac to what was then the fort, and is now the 
town, of St. Louis, there being at that early date a 
small French settlement in the same place where 
there is now a large American village of that 
name. Hennepin himself owned a house there, for 
he was in the habit of visiting St. Louis occasionally, 
and of tarrying there weeks and months at a time. 

As he entered his house, on the occasion of his 
last visit, just named, he was much startled at meet- 
ing with Monsieur Cavalier, the brother or brother- 
in-law of La Salle. His countenance indicated no 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 65 

great pleasure at seeing Hennepin ; but the latter, 
in his surprise and delight, did not notice this cir- 
cumstance, but eagerly embraced his old friend, 
and immediately inquired after the welfare of La 
Salle. This question seemed to trouble Cavalier 
exceedingly. He raised his eyes sadly to heaven, 
drew a deep sigh, and appeared to be making an 
effort to conceal his feelings. Hennepin, who be- 
gan to be alarmed, entreated him to conceal noth- 
ing, but to tell him the whole truth, and the 
sooner the better. 

Cavalier now asserted that La Salle was in per- 
fect health, but that the ill success of his last voy- 
age out from France, had so depressed his spirits, 
that he had concluded for the present to remain 
among the Natchez and other friendly and hospita- 
ble tribes, on the banks of the Lower Mississippi. 
Besides, he wished, added Cavalier, to obtain cer- 
tain articles from these nations in the way of trade. 

Hennepin was satisfied and pleased with this 
declaration, especially since, Cavalier being a 
priest, he could not very well doubt that he spoke, 
or at least intended to speak, the truth. He now 
entreated his friend to favor him with a more par- 
ticular account of the voyage from France. 

Cavalier undertook, accordingly, to do so. He 
said that the whole court of France had been de- 
lighted with the splendid discoveries made by La 
Salle in exploring the Mississippi for the first time, 
as my readers have already learned ; and that the 
6 * 



66 HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 

king hesitated not to grant him, not only titles of 
honor in recompense for his services, but also what- 
ever funds and supplies he thought necessary for 
carrying on any future expeditions. Under these 
favorable circumstances, La Salle had left France, 
a second time, July 24, 1684, with four vessels, well 
provided with all kinds of stores, and with more than 
200 men, as well artificers and laborers as soldiers. 
But they met with severe misfortunes. Off St. 
Domingo, the fleet was surprised by a violent storm. 
One of their ships, laden with merchandise of im- 
mense value, was driven off, and afterwards taken 
by Spanish pirates. The rest of the fleet, indeed, 
was collected together, and enabled to repair and 
supply themselves with fresh provisions in St. Do- 
mingo ; but the sailors, who went ashore there, 
lived so freely during their stay as to contract very 
dangerous diseases. Of the three vessels still re- 
maining, two were lost before reaching the mouth of 
the Mississippi — one by running on a shelf of sand 
in the mouth of a bay, and the other by dashing 
against a rock. It was now February of the year 
1685. 

The mouth of the river was not yet found ; but 
La Salle, with his remaining party, explored large 
tracts of the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, and 
visited numerous Indian nations who lived in its 
vicinity. Meanwhile, several of his men died of 
the diseases contracted in St. Domingo ; and forty 
or more were cut off by parties of hostile savages. 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 67 

Some also deserted, and took refuge among more 
friendly tribes. 

Finally, La Salle himself, depressed by these mis- 
fortunes, and fatigued by his wanderings along the 
shores of the gulf, fell sick, August 24, 1685 ; and 
the whole party were, therefore, obliged to pitch 
their tents, and abandon all thoughts of further 
discoveries. Fortunately, they not only found 
themselves in a fine fertile country, where there was 
plenty of good fruit, wholesome herbs and roots, 
and wild game of the most excellent quality ; but 
the neighboring savages proved hospitable and 
kind. They furnished the sick man and his com- 
rades with veal, venison, partridges and pigeons ; 
and it was partly owing to these attentions, that, 
after a month's delay, the Frenchmen were in a con- 
dition to continue their journey toward the north. 

They had heretofore travelled on foot ; but the 
Indians last named supplied them with horses, and 
they could now travel, consequently, with both more 
speed and more comfort One of the party only 
was the worse for his horse. This was an Indian 
who had joined them. As he rode along by the 
banks of a river in which, as in most rivers of that 
latitude, the alligators were numerous, one of those 
animals suddenly started up from the water in such 
a manner as to set the horse to prancing most vio- 
lently, until he succeeded in throwing his rider 
into the stream, where the ravenous beast dragged 
him off, and devoured him in sight of the whole 
company. 



68 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 



Thus Cavalier went on with his story till he had 
related, as he said, all the adventures of La Salle, 
up to the time of visiting the tribes of the Lower 
Mississippi, among whom, as we have already said, 
he was now represented to be. 



CHAPTER IX, 

Father Hennepin has more Conversation icith Cavalier, 
The latter goes off upon an Expedition, Hennepin 
meets with Cousture, who tells him how La Salle was 
killed by some of his own Party, Particulars of the 
Murder, Other Anecdotes, 

Father Hennepin thanked Cavalier for his in- 
formation, disagreeable as some of it was, and the 
two friends embraced again. Still his anxiety and 
uncertainty were not altogether removed. " How 
could it happen," he asked, " that La Salle should 
be wandering about in this country for the space 
of two years, and I, who have also been traversing 
these remote regions continually, and who have 
made so many inquiries about him, should never 
once meet him, nor even hear of him V s 

Cavalier explained this matter in the best way 
he was able ; and he then went on to converse 
upon other subjects. As he expressed an intention 
to leave the fort (St. Louis) the next day, on a 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 69 

journey northward, through the wilderness, Hen- 
nepin took care to furnish him and his attendants 
with plenty of provisions, and all other conve- 
niences for their expedition. On the ensuing morn- 
ing, Cavalier and his party accordingly left the fort 

Hennepin also, who never rested or refreshed 
himself long at a time, was, two days after this^ pre- 
paring to embark once more on the Mississippi, in 
pursuit of new adventures among the Indians, 
when he saw approaching him, up the bank of the 
river, an old acquaintance of his, one Monsieur 
Cousture* This person had formerly been a ser- 
vant or agent of La Salle and Cavalier, among the 
Indians. After mutual embraces, and some in- 
quiries as to his health, Hennepin asked him s 
€( where he had left La Salle." 

"Left him!" answered Cousture; "left La 
Salle 1 Why, don't you know that La Salle is 
dead ?" 

"How! La Salle dead?" 

" Certainly he is. He was assassinated by his 
own party in the wilderness, between the Palaques- 
son tribe and the Nouadiches." 

Here Hennepin could scarcely contain himself, 
*f Why, Cavalier, his own brother," he said, " Cav- 
alier has but just taken leave of me ; and he not 
only told me nothing of all this, but delivered me 
a letter as from La Salle himself." 

" Sir," rejoined Cousture, " I had my informa- 
tion from Cavalier's own mouth, and his tears at 



70 HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 

that time were the strongest evidence of his vera- 
city. I am very sorry, however, to be the first mes- 
senger to you of so bad news." 

After some further and more composed conver- 
sation, it appeared that the circumstances of the 
murder of La Salle were as follow : — 

That gentleman, it seems, after recovering from 
the illness which has been heretofore mentioned, 
undertook, in March, 1686, a fresh expedition 
through the woods beyond the Mississippi. He 
was accompanied by about thirty persons, among 
whom were two of his nephews, his brother Cavalier, 
two brothers named Lancelot, another Frenchman 
named Dan, an Indian named Chaouanau, two Eng- 
lish adventurers, and a German traveller named 
Hieus. 

On the first day of their march, La Salle, perceiv- 
ing that the younger Lancelot, who was still weak 
from the effects of a violent fit of sickness, was 
unable to keep pace with the rest of the company, 
determined to send him back. The elder brother 
objected strongly to this measure, but La Salle in- 
sisted upon the necessity of it ; and the young man 
was accordingly sent back, much to the discontent 
of his brother. Most unfortunately for all the par- 
ties, those who undertook the conveyance of the 
patient home were met on the way by a band of 
hostile savages. A skirmish ensued, and the sick 
man was killed by them on the spot. 

The surviving elder brother was of course much 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 71 

afflicted by the intelligence of this horrid event, 
which immediately after reached the travelling 
party. But he was still more incensed than af- 
flicted; for, most unreasonably, he laid all the 
blame of the thing — if there was any blame at- 
tached to it — to Monsieur La Salle. At all events, 
he now became that gentleman's deadly enemy, 
and forthwith swore to accomplish his speedy 
destruction. 

For the space of about two months, however, he 
smothered his indignation, and quietly followed the 
company. When they had reached that part of 
the wilderness lying between the territory of the 
Palaquesson tribe and the Nouadiches, their pro- 
visions failed, and the individuals of the party were 
compelled to supply themselves by hunting. On 
this occasion, Lancelot and Dan agreed to go hunt- 
ing together, and they made a proposal to Moran- 
get, one of La Salle's two nephews, to join them. 
He, not mistrusting their motives at all, joined 
them ; and they soon after took an occasion, in the 
woods, to reek their malice upon this unfortu- 
nate gentleman, — whom they considered the best 
friend of La Salle, — by despatching him with the 
blow of a hatchet. He died two hours afterwards, 
suffering great pain, but heartily forgiving his 
enemies. 

Meanwhile, La Salle was awaiting, with the rest 
of his party, the return of his nephew. But 
neither he nor his companions made their appear- 



72 HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 



ance. La Salle, attended by two of his friends, 
now set out in search of his nephew. After con- 
siderable time spent in fruitless and weary wan- 
dering, he espied Lancelot's comrade walking 
about at a distance among the tall grass of a 
meadow, on the banks of the Mississippi. He ran 
up, and cried out to him, " Where is Moranget 1" 

" Go and look for him," answered the rufhan ; 
" go and look for him, there on the bank." 

And there, indeed, La Salle and his friends 
found the mangled corpse of their murdered rela- 
tive. In the mean time, Lancelot and his man 
had taken their position near by, in the grass. 
They now aimed their fusees at La Salle, and shot 
him with three balls through the head. 

While the unfortunate man's friends were ren- 
dering him every attention which his situation de- 
manded, these villains now ran off to seize upon 
the baggage of La Salle, and that of the whole 
party, which was bound up with it ; and they suc- 
ceeded in obtaining possession of ten horses, all 
the goods, and a sum of money to the amount of 
about two thousand crowns. Upon this, the rest 
of the company, thinking it best to make for the 
present a grace of necessity, submitted to the di- 
rection of Lancelot and his friend Dan. 

But their success was not of a kind to last long. 
The party travelled on some time, until the English- 
man and the German, who had as yet received no 
part of the baggage by way of a bribe, found them- 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 73 



selves suffering for want of clothes. They went 
to Lancelot, and asked for their proper share. The 
latter treated them rudely. The Englishman re- 
peated his demand, and Lancelot refused him 
again, more harshly than before. The English- 
man could contain himself no longer. " Thou 
art a vile traitor," said he ; " thou hast killed thy 
master and mine and upon this he drew a pistol 
from his girdle, and shot three balls through the 
body of Lancelot, which laid him bleeding on the 
ground. 

Dan hastily ran for his fusee, with the view of 
coming to his friend's rescue ; but the German, 
who was all the while standing by, soon stopped 
his career, by breaking his head on the spot. Both 
these hardened villains soon after breathed their 
last. 

Such was the relation which Cousture made to 
Hennepin ; and such, doubtless, were the facts. 
Cavalier had been unwilling to tell the truth, prob- 
ably, from an apprehension of afflicting Hennepin 
too severely, or of discouraging him from new efforts 
to extend the surveys and settlements of the French 
in the west. Our readers have learned, then, what 
was the fate of the gallant adventurer who first 
explored the great River Mississippi ; and who did 
more, perhaps, than any other individual ever did 
towards extending, among all the Christian nations 
of Europe, a knowledge of what are now the states 
and territories of the Mississippian Valley. 
7 



74 HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 



CHAPTER X. 

Sketches of Adventures in the West after La Salle's 
Death. How New Orleans was settled. Quarrels 
between the Spaniards and the French. A bad Mistake 
made by the Spaniards, and a large Party of them 
killed by the Indians. Account of the Natchez Tnbe. 
How a Quarrel arose between them and the French. 
The French massacred. The Natchez destroyed. 

From the time of La Salle's death, for forty 
years and more, numerous adventurers like him- 
self, undiscouraged by his melancholy fate, were 
continually coming out from France, and other 
European countries, to explore the wilderness of 
the west. A considerable number of small settle- 
ments came in time to be founded at various places, 
chiefly on the banks of the Mississippi, while all 
the remaining immense territory of the valley of 
that great river was still destined to remain for 
almost a century unsettled by a civilized popu- 
lation. 

Some of these settlements were made by the 
French, and some by the Spanish ; — the English 
at that period were making their progress of the 
same character in other quarters of the globe. 
One of the French establishments was on the Mo- 
bile River. In 1717, the first steps were taken 
towards the foundation of a colony on the site of 
what is now New Orleans ; Bienville, a distin- 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 75 

guished French navigator, having left fifty men 
there, to make a clearing, and erect buildings. 
In August of the same year, nearly eight hundred 
settlers and soldiers were sent out from France, 
who established themselves at the different new 
settlements of the Mississippian country. The 
Spaniards, meanwhile, had made some progress in 
settling certain parts of Florida ; Pensacola and 
St. Augustine were considerable towns. They 
also had settlements near those of the French on 
Red River. 

A great contest now ensued, between the French 
and the Spaniards, for an ascendency in the influ- 
ence and growth of these colonies. The latter 
were especially anxious that the power which the 
French obtained among the Indians of the Mis- 
souri should be in some way counteracted or de- 
stroyed. The Missouri tribe itself — so called — 
were the most warlike friends of that nation in this 
quarter ; and the Spaniards wisely concluded that 
if they could be put down, there might be some 
prospect of their civilized allies being gradually 
driven from the country. 

With these views, the Spaniards near Red River 
formed a plan to engage the assistance of the 
Pawnees, another very powerful Missouri tribe, 
who were almost always at war ^ with the Mis- 
souries. An expedition was equipped, which set 
out from Santa Fe, a small town on a branch of 
the Rio del Norte. Unluckily, they mistook their 



76 HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 



way, and, instead of reaching the Pawnee towns, as 
intended, fell unconsciously on the chief village of 
the Missouries themselves, the very people whom 
they proposed to attack. What was worse, as these 
two tribes spoke the same language, the mistake 
was not discovered by the party which made it. 

A conference immediately took place, at which 
the Spaniards communicated their purposes, with- 
out the least reserve, and ended with requesting 
their assistance in fighting against the Missouries. 
These crafty savages were not slow in making the 
best use of this blunder. They preserved their 
customary grave appearance and quiet manner 
during the conference, and only requested that time 
enough should be allowed them for calling in their 
warriors from the neighboring villages, to consult 
them on the scheme. At the end of forty-eight 
hours, they assembled two thousand bowmen. 
These fell upon the unsuspecting and careless 
Spaniards in their encampments ; and the whole 
party, with the exception only of a few priests 
who escaped on horseback, were massacred on 
the spot. 

A still more memorable incident in these early 
struggles for superiority is the massacre of the 
French residing among the Natchez Indians, and the 
final destruction of that entire tribe by the French. 
The Natchez — the same people we have already 
mentioned, in the account of La Salle's adven- 
tures — inhabited those delightful and fertile hills 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 7? 

which now constitute the better part of the state 
of Mississippi. They were in many respects, 
when compared with the neighboring tribes, a pol- 
ished and well-regulated people. They were con- 
siderably acquainted with the use of medicinal 
herbs ; their government was quite regular ; and 
their chiefs, who were also their priests, were held 
by the people in such superstitious veneration, that, 
when about to be condemned to death on some 
occasions, numbers of their subjects would offer 
their own lives to redeem them. The tribes around 
them were, in a great measure, subject to their in- 
fluence. 

Generally, the Natchez had been exceedingly 
faithful allies to the French ; and the latter had 
taken particular pains to secure their confidence 
and good-will. The cause of the quarrel which is 
now to be related, was of the most trivial char- 
acter. 

" A soldier of the garrison of Fort Rosalie, which 
the French had built among this nation, alleged"— 
says Mr. Flint, in his Geography and History of 
the Western States — " that an old Natchez warrior 
owed him corn, and demanded immediate pay- 
ment. The Indian replied, that the corn was yet 
green in the fields ; and that, as soon as it was suf- 
ficiently ripe, he should be paid. The soldier per- 
sisted to demand prompt payment, threatening him 
with a beating, if he refused. Even the threat of 
being struck is ever insupportable to an Indian. 
7* 



78 HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 



The old man sprang incensed from the fort, and 
challenged the soldier to single combat. The 
soldier, alarmed by the rage of the Indian, cried 
Murder ! The warrior on this, and seeing a crowd 
collecting, retired slowly towards his village. One 
of the guard fired upon him, and he was mortally 
wounded. No inquiry was made, or at least no 
punishment inflicted on him who had committed 
the outrage. 

"All the revengeful feelings, natural to savages, 
were called up on the occasion. The Natchez 
flew to arms, and the French were assailed on 
every side, and many of them fell. The Stung 
Serpent, an influential chief, interposed his au- 
thority, and the slaughter ceased. A new treaty 
of peace was the result of the discussion that en- 
sued, and the whole affair seemed to be buried in 
oblivion. 

" Soon after this, in the year 1723, under dif- 
ferent pretexts, several hundred soldiers were 
secretly introduced into the settlement, and the 
defenceless and unsuspecting Natchez were 
slaughtered in their huts. The head of the 
first chief was demanded as the price of peace, 
and the wretched Natchez were obliged to 
yield to the demand. The slaughter had con- 
tinued four days, before peace was granted 
them. This was a deed, of course, never to be for- 
gotten nor forgiven by the savages. They saw at 
once, that there now remained no alternative 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 



79 



between their own destruction or that of their 
enemies. They w T ere moody, pensive, timid and 
slow ; but they were sure in devising the means 
of vengeance. 

" Things remained in this situation until 1729. 
At this time, M. de Chopart, who had been the 
chief agent in these transactions, and who was 
excessively obnoxious to the savages, had been 
ordered to New Orleans, to meet an investigation 
of his conduct touching this affair. The joy of 
the savages was great ; for they hoped, at least, to 
be delivered from his enmity and oppression. 
To their despair, they learned that he was justified, 
and reinstated in his authority. He seemed, on 
his return, more vindictive towards them than ever. 
To manifest his ill feelings, he determined to build 
a town, two miles below the present site of Natch- 
ez, on ground occupied by a large and ancient 
village of the Indians. Accordingly, he sent for 
the Sun chief, and ordered him to have the savage 
huts cleared away, and the inhabitants dispersed. 
The chief replied, ' that their ancestors had dwelt 
there for ages ; and that it was good that their 
descendants should dwell there after them.' The 
order was repeated, with a threat of destruction, 
if not obeyed. 

" The Indians dissembled ; and, remarking 
' that the corn had just come out of the ground, 
and that their hens were laying their eggs, and 
that to abandon their village at that time would 



80 HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 

bring famine both on them and the French/ re- 
quested delay. All that they could obtain of the 
haughty commandant was, to delay until autumn, 
on condition, that each hut should bring a basket 
of corn, and a fowl, as a tribute for this forbear- 
ance. The savages met, and held councils in pri- 
vate ; and the unanimous result was, to make one 
final effort to preserve their independence and the 
tombs of their ancestors inviolate. 

" The Chickasaws, the allies of the English, 
and the natural enemies of the French, were in- 
vited to take a part with them in their meditated 
vengeance upon the French. The Chickasaws 
eagerly consented ; but, by the treachery of one of 
their women, probably in the interest of the 
French, were deceived as to the day, and did not 
arrive until after the blow was struck. The mas- 
sacre of the French was arranged to take place on 
the time when the Natchez should be admitted 
among them, to pay their tribute of corn and 
fowls. M. de Chopart was warned by a woman, 
probably attached to some Frenchman, of their 
approaching doom. But the evil star of the 
French prevailed, and the commandant, instead of 
arousing to caution, punished the informer. 

" The fatal period for the breaking forth of the 
smothered vengeance of the savages came, The 
last day of November, 1729, the i Grand Sun,' 
with his warriors, repaired to the fort, with the 
promised tribute of corn and fowls. The soldiers 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 81 



were abroad in perfect security. The savages 
seized the gate, and other passages, by which the 
soldiers were excluded from their arms. The gar- 
rison was filled with warriors. The houses in the 
country were occupied, by previous concert, at the 
same time. It was a general massacre. None 
were spared, but the slaves, and some of the 
women and children. Such was the abhorrence 
and contempt of M. de Chopart, that the chiefs 
would not kill him, and he was slain by one of the 
meanest of the Indians. Of seven hundred peo- 
ple, scarcely enough survived to carry the tidings 
of the destruction to the capital. All the forts, 
settlements and inhabitants on the Yazoo and 
Washita shared the common fate of massacre and 
the flames. 

" Consternation at first pervaded the capital. 
But the French soon put every engine in operation, 
to retaliate. The Chickasaws, thinking themselves 
mocked by the Natchez, in being deceived as to 
the time when the blow was struck on the French, 
in resentment for not being at the massacre of the 
French, were ready to join the French, to extirpate 
the Natchez. Fifteen hundred Chickasaws joined 
themselves to a detachment of French troops, 
aided by cannon. 

" The Natchez had fortified themselves ; but on 
the appearance of this formidable force, and the 
discharge of the cannon, they humbled themselves, 
to sue for peace. They offered to restore the 



82 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 



French prisoners in their possession, and forsake 
their country forever. M. de Lubois, anxious to 
save the prisoners, consented to put off the attack 
until the next day, provided that the prisoners 
were given up. 

" The following night, they deserted the fort, in 
a silence so profound, as not to disturb their ene- 
mies. They crossed the Mississippi, and ascended 
Red River to a point not far from where Natchi- 
toches is now situated. The French pursued 
them, headed by M. de Perrier, with cannon. 
They had fortified themselves ; and in their last 
fastnesses they fought with the desperation of men 
who were ready to die. They sallied out, and 
attempted to cut their way through the besieging 
force in vain. It was useless to contend with the 
strength that surrounded them. The women and 
children were enslaved at home ; and the males 
were sent, as slaves, to St. Domingo. Thus 
utterly perished the once powerful tribe of the 
Natchez." 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 



CHAPTER IX. 

Contests between the English and French. Expedition, 
in 1754, against the French on the Ohio. First Cam- 
paign of General Washington. Defeat and Death 
of General Braddock, in 1755. Quebec taken by the 
English. War with the Cherokee Indians. General 
Peace in 1763. 

From the date of the destruction of the Natchez 
tribe by the French, for about twenty-five years, 
considerable advances were made by that active 
nation in establishing settlements in various parts 
of the western country. But the chief struggle 
for supremacy was no longer between them and 
the Spaniards. It was between the French and 
the English. The colonies of the latter, planted 
and prospering all along the Atlantic coast, and 
upon the St. Lawrence on the north, gave them 
many advantages, but at the same time made them 
peculiarly apprehensive of the influence which the 
French had obtained among the savages of the 
west. The latter were by them frequently insti- 
gated to make war on the English provinces. 

In consequence of these measures and views, in 
the year 1754, England and France being now on 
the eve of war with each other, the governors of 
the different Atlantic provinces were called upon 
by the British government to furnish their respect- 
ive quotas of men, to form one grand army by 



Si 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 



which the French were to be driven off from the 
establishments they had made on the Ohio. The 
command was given to Washington, now colonel, 
but the same who was afterwards general of the 
revolutionary army, and who, on this occasion, 
made his earliest campaign. It did not prove a 
fortunate one, although no blame could be attrib- 
uted to him. Detached from Virginia, with a 
force of four hundred men, to fortify a position on 
the Ohio, he was met and attacked by a superior 
enemy, consisting of French and Indians, and 
was compelled to capitulate and return home. 

A new and more vigorous effort was made by 
the British government during the following year. 
General Braddock arrived from England, with a 
considerable body of troops. These were joined 
by a force of provincial soldiers, under the com- 
mand of Washington. The united army com- 
menced their march over the Alleghany Moun- 
tains by a long and laborious route. They de- 
signed to make their first attack on the French 
fort at the head of the Ohio, called Du Quesne, 
and the same which is now Pittsburg. 

The great difficulty in the management of this 
expedition arose from the inexperience of Brad- 
dock, who, though an excellent officer according to 
the usual modes of European warfare, was wholly 
unacquainted with either the proper way of march- 
ing across the wilderness, or of providing against 
an attack from the savages. 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 85 

" He moved his square battalions/ ' says a 
western historian, " over the logs and the ravines, 
and through the deep forests west of the mountains, 
until he arrived within a few miles of the fort, 
The French and Indians had spread an ambuscade, 
like a concealed net, which was covered from view 
by the trees. The British general, rejecting the ad- 
vice of his provincial allies and of Washington, who 
were better acquainted with the wiles and perils of In- 
dian warfare, marched, in proud and undoubting reli- 
ance upon his regular tactics, into this ambuscade. 

" The first conviction of his temerity was in a 
general discharge upon his advance, from behind 
trees, and other coverts, from an invisible enemy. 
A more murderous action has seldom occurred, in 
proportion to the numbers engaged. It was to no 
purpose, that the British formed themselves into 
hollow squares, and drove their concealed enemy 
by the bayonet a little before them into the forest. 
They retreated only to present themselves in front 
anew. A great proportion of the regulars were 
either killed or wounded. Such was the fate of 
almost all the officers. Among them was General 
Braddock, who paid for his temerity by receiving 
a mortal wound, of which he died in a little time. 

" Washington exhibited presages of his future 
character, as a general. He was calm, fearless, and 
self-possessed. Two horses were killed under him ; 
and four balls passed through his coat. ' I expect- 
ed,' said Doctor Craik, an eye-witness, 1 every mo- 
8 



86 HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 

ment to see him fall. His duty and situation ex- 
posed him to every danger. The superintending 
care of Providence seemed to have saved him from 
the fate of all around him, that he might accom- 
plish the great achievements which were before 
him.' It seems to be generally admitted, that the 
bringing off any part of the forces from this mur- 
derous battle, was owing to the skill and manage- 
ment of Washington.' 5 * 

The result of the war was not generally, how- 
ever, so unfortunate for the British ; for by the 
splendid victory of General Wolfe, on the Heights 
of Abraham, they obtained possession of Quebec 
in 1759 ; and the consequence was, that all Can- 
ada soon after came into their possession. 

Still, the French, in the more southern and 
western sections of the continent, continued to 
molest them ; and particularly by exciting the hos- 
tility of the Indian tribes. In 1760, the Chero- 
kees, living on the highlands in the rear of Geor- 
gia and South Carolina, were induced by French 
influence, to fall upon the English traders and 
settlers who resided among them, and to pillage 
and slaughter them without mercy. A war ensued 
between the English and the Indians. A force of 
1200 soldiers of South Carolina and other prov- 
inces marched into the heart of the Cherokee ter- 
ritory, and severely revenged the massacre of their 



* Flint's History. 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 



87 



countrymen, by defeating the savages in battle, 
burning their villages, and laying waste their coun- 
try far and wide. This had the effect to quiet the 
Cherokees for a long series of years. Peace was 
concluded between France and England in 1760. 



CHAPTER XII. 

Sketches of icestem History during the Revolutionary 
War. Skirmishes with the Indians. Adventures of 
American hunting Parties in the Woods. Anecdotes 
of Daniel Boone, the great Hunter. Story about the 
Attack of the Indians upon Logan's Camp in Ken- 
tucky. 

The American revolution, as my readers will 
recollect, commenced in 1775. Of that memorable 
contest, which continued seven years, and termi- 
nated in securing the independence of the United 
States, I have heretofore given a full account. In 
this chapter, however, I shall bring together a num- 
ber of interesting incidents belonging to that pe- 
riod, which are not properly a part of the history of 
the revolution itself. I refer particularly to the 
hostilities of the western Indians, which were now 
incessant ; and to the early settlement of a number 
of the states and territories by wandering adven- 
turers from the Atlantic coast. 

Tennessee was among the first of these states to 
be settled in any considerable degree. The French 



88 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 



had an establishment where Nashville now is, and 
two others, in other parts of the state, a long time 
before Braddock's defeat. It was not until 1776, 
that the country was traversed by a large hunting 
party of American adventurers. One of this ear- 
liest party, it is said, was an old man, passionately 
fond of hunting and of a forest life, but who had 
so far lost the use of his eyes, that the only way in 
which he could take sight of the buffaloes and deer, 
was by tying a piece of white paper to the muzzle 
of his gun. In this manner he succeeded in 
killing a number of deer. At one time, having 
strayed from the encampment of the party, he lost 
himself in the woods, and wandered about for nine- 
teen days, until he was found by the other hunters 
almost disabled by starvation and cold. A number 
of small American settlements were made in vari- 
ous parts of Tennessee in the course of the revo- 
lutionary war, but they did not flourish much until 
after its termination. 

In Kentucky, the earliest settlers came also from 
the eastern states, and were men of the same ad- 
venturous and hardy character with those who 
roamed over the woods of Tennessee. Among the 
number, the most distinguished was Daniel Boone, 
a man born and educated in Maryland, and who 
had afterwards lived in Virginia and North Caro- 
lina. The habits of a hunter alone seemed to have 
charms for him ; and he abandoned civilized life 
forever, for the privilege of wandering among the 
cane-brakes and meadows of Kentucky. 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 89 

On his second visit to Kentucky, he had a com- 
panion with him, whose name was Stewart. As 
the two hunters were one morning just leaving their 
rude camp, for a day's hunt, they were surprised 
by a party of Indians, who took them both captive, 
and plundered them of every thing they possessed. 
For eight days they were obliged to follow the 
march of their masters through the woods ; but on 
the eighth night, being left unguarded, while the 
Indians slept, they escaped, and found their way 
back to their desolate and plundered camp. Here, 
having neither food, guns nor amunition, they 
must have perished, had they not been fortunately 
visited at this time by a brother of Boone's, lately 
arrived from Carolina, who supplied them with all 
these articles. 

Soon afterwards, the little party was fired upon 
by the savages, and Stewart was killed. The 
brothers, who escaped, with their hatchets built 
themselves a cabin of poles and bark, in which 
they spent the winter. In the spring of 1770, 
his brother returned to Carolina, and Daniel was 
left alone in the wilderness — the only white man 
in Kentucky. He had neither bread nor salt, and 
not even a dog for a companion. 

In 1771, he went back to Carolina; and two 
years after, he and his brother returned to Ken- 
tucky, with some of their relatives, and five other 
persons. Forty individuals joined the party on 
their march. They advanced through the woods 
8 * 



90 HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 



in high spirits, until, on the tenth of October 
(1773), the Indians fired upon their rear, and killed 
six men, including Daniel Boone's eldest son. 
They pursued the enemy, and drove them off, but 
not until their cattle were dispersed. In June of 
the year 1775, a fort was erected by Boone and 
those who were with him, on the Kentucky River, 
where Boonesborough now stands. 

His family, meanwhile, had remained at a small 
settlement on Clinch River, where they had taken 
refuge after the rencounter with the Indians, while 
Boone himself went on to Kentucky to provide a 
residence for them in that quarter. He now escort- 
ed them through the woods to his new fort ; and his 
wife and daughter were the first white women who 
arrived in Kentucky. There were, about this pe- 
riod, two other small establishments made in the 
same section ; one was Harrodsburgh, and the 
other was called " Logan's Camp." 

The Indians, who were numerous, and almost 
continually hostile, attacked Harrodshurgh in 
March of the year 1776, at a time when some of 
the men attached to the fort were absent. In the 
vicinity of the fort, they in the first place surprised 
three white men who had undertaken to clear a 
small place for cultivation. One of them was 
killed, the second taken captive, and the other 
succeeded in making his escape to the garrison, to 
which he gave the alarm. This young man was 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 91 

James Ray, subsequently well known as General 
Ray. 

This notice, short as it was, enabled the people 
to put the place in the best order of defence. The 
fire commenced, and some were wounded on both 
sides. The assailants soon became disheartened by 
their reception, and withdrew, leaving one of their 
number slain behind — a circumstance strongly 
marking their confusion, for the Indians make it 
a sacred principle to carry off, on these occasions, 
both their dead and wounded. 

Still they continued hovering about the vicinity 
of the fort, and that in too great numbers to be pur- 
sued by the garrison. On the 10th of April, about 
one hundred of them made an assault upon the 
Boonesborough station or fort ; but were received 
there with such a determined spirit as to withdraw in 
some disorder, after killing one person and wounding 
four. Then they attacked Logan's Camp. At the 
moment of their approach to this station — where 
there were at this period only fifteen whites in all — 
the women were without the walls, milking their cows, 
and the men were guarding them, The Indians 
drew r near under cover of a thick cane-brake, which 
still remained in the close neighborhood of the little 
settlement. They fired, and killed two of the whites. 
The remainder, with the women, reached the fort 
unhurt. 

The savages now relaxed their fire, and the 
whites had leisure to observe, in looking from their 



92 HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 



windows, that one of their number, wounded, and 
supposed to have been killed, by the first fire of the 
savages, was still alive, and struggling to crawl tow- 
ards the fort. What made this spectacle the more 
afflictive was, that the poor fellow had a family of 
his own within the fort. Logan, the intrepid man 
who had led out the band of hunters which occu- 
pied this station, determined to make a desperate 
effort for the rescue of the unfortunate fellow. Not 
a person in the fort, however, could be induced to 
expose himself to the fire of the Indians. "Just at this 
moment, Logan saw the poor wounded man, after 
crawling a few steps, sink to the earth. His com- 
passion could not sustain the sight. Collecting his 
powers, and putting his life in his hand, he rush- 
ed forth, took up the half-dead victim in his arms, 
and bore him amidst a shower of balls, into the fort. 
Some of the balls were buried in the palisades close 
by his head. 

" But along with this happy omen, another of a 
different aspect was seen. On the return of the 
wounded man, the garrison discovered that they 
had but a few more shots of ammunition left ; and 
there was no chance of replenishing their stock, 
nearer than the other two forts. They were aware, 
at the same time, that these garrisons would need 
all they had for themselves. To detach any of 
their number to go to the settlement on Holston, 
would be so to weaken their number, as to leave 
them almost a certain prey to the invader. To 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 93 

sustain the siege without ammunition, was impossi- 
ble. To go to Holston was the elected alternative. 
As the life of every member of the garrison depended 
upon the success of the expedition, it was necessary 
to select for the party men who could judge, with 
promptness and decision, what was best to be done 
in cases of emergency, and who were expert 
woodsmen, and capable of sustaining every kind of 
fatigue and suffering. 

" Logan, indispensable as his presence was in the 
garrison, was unanimously elected to head the par- 
ty to be despatched on this still more important 
expedition. It would be difficult for imagination 
to group a more affecting picture, than the parting of 
this small forlorn hope from their families, left in the 
desolate forests thus reduced in numbers, and with- 
out ammunition, and surrounded by a savage foe. 
We can see them looking back upon the pale faces 
of their families, and contemplating from without 
the thick cane-brake, and the pathless wilderness, 
which their imaginations would naturally represent 
as filled with their ruthless enemies. 

"But these men of iron sinew, although they had 
generous and tender hearts, had sound judgments and 
strong minds. They felt that the step was necessa- 
ry. They might be allowed to drop natural tears, and 
to cast fond looks behind, as they went forth with 
stealthy pace from their weeping friends, to thread 
their way through the woods, without being seen by 
the besieging savages. They took, for this purpose, 



94 HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 

an entirely untrodden track through the forests ; 
and crossed the Cumberland Mountain by a route 
which had probably never been trodden before. 
We presume it never has been since. 

" They reached Holston in safety, and obtained 
the requisite supplies. Logan intrusted them to 
the remainder of his small party, with directions 
how to proceed ; and started on his way home alone, 
preceding the slower advance of this party to carry in 
ammunition. Within ten days from the time of his 
departure from the fort, he performed this long, and 
hazardous, and lonely journey, and reached the fort 
again. It was still invested by the savages, and al- 
most in despair. His return seemed an interposition 
of Providence, and naturally tended to invigorate 
and encourage the besieged. The return of the 
party soon after, with ammunition, yielded them 
the physical means of annoying the enemy, and 
sustaining the siege. 

" A new difficulty arose. The garrison was ap- 
proaching a state of starvation, and must hunt to 
relieve their necessities. This new difficulty once 
more spread the gloom of despair over their pros- 
pects. But as they were resigning their hopes of 
escaping the savages, Colonel Bowman arrived at 
the fort with a hundred men, and dispersed the 
savages. In getting into the fort, a detachment of 
these men, which preceded the main body, were kill- 
ed by the besiegers. On one of the dead bodies, the 
Canadians had left a proclamation, which had been 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES, 



95 



prepared by the governor of Canada. It seemed to 
be intended for circulation among the people. It 
offered protection to those of the people who would 
abjure their allegiance to the revolted colonies, and 
threatened those who would not. The paper was 
carried to Logan, who concealed it carefully, through 
fear of the effect it might work upon the minds of 
the people. 

" The arrival of the force under Colonel Bowman, 
and the consequent dispersion of the Indians, were 
calculated to raise the spirits of the garrison. But 
in the midst of their exultation and joy, they learn- 
ed that his men were enlisted but for a short time, 
great part of which had been consumed on their 
march to their relief. They foresaw that the de- 
parture of this force would be the sure renewal of 
the horrors of the Indian invasion. They were 
again in want of ammunition ; and Logan again 
undertook the long and lonely expedition to Hol- 
ston, and once more returned with a supply. " 

The result of these gallant exertions — for an ac- 
count of which we are indebted chiefly to Mr, Flint's 
History — was, that the savages were at length dis- 
couraged and driven off; and so ended the long- 
remembered assault upon Logan's Camp. 



96 HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Other Adventures of Daniel Boone. He is captured by 
the Indians. How they treated him. How he escaped 
from them. Account of their Attack upon Boonesborough. 
Anecdotes of the Siege. The Indians are driven off. 

In July of the season last named (1775), Boone's 
little party was joined by forty-five fresh adventu- 
rers from North Carolina. On the first of the ensu- 
ing January, with thirty of his now tolerably efficient 
garrison, he set out for a place called the 1 Blue 
Licks/ where salt was collected by the whites from 
salt springs. While he was hunting in the woods in 
that vicinity, to procure food for the salt-makers, he 
came suddenly upon a party of over one hundred In- 
dians, who were marching to attack Boonesborough 
once more. He fled, but they pursued and over- 
took him ; and they then advanced upon the Licks 
so warily as to surprise twenty-seven of the thirty 
men who were there at work. 

Delighted with this extraordinary success, the 
savages led their prisoners in triumph through the 
wilderness, across the Ohio River, to one of their 
villages called Chillicothe — as the town still is 
which stands upon the same spot at this day. In 
the month of March, eleven of the whites were sent 
to Detroit, and exhibited as captives to the Eng- 
lish commander of the fort at that place, — the war 
between England and America being now on the 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 



97 



eve of breaking out. Liberal offers were made for 
the ransom of Boone, who was one of the eleven ; 
but his masters rejected them, and soon after 
marched him back to Chillicothe. 

The truth was, they valued Boone very highly as 
a great hunter and a brave man. They even en- 
tertained hopes of making a friend of him ; and 
this idea he found it for his best interest rather to 
humor. He pretended to be perfectly satisfied 
with his residence among them. They were ex- 
ceedingly pleased with this, and he was before long 
adopted into the family of one of the principal men 
of the Shawanee tribe, to which his master be- 
longed. He took particular pains to ingratiate the 
good-will of the head-chief of that tribe, whom he 
frequently presented with a large part of the pro- 
ceeds of his hunting excursions. 

But Boone had by no means forgotten his wife 
and children, or abandoned, for a single moment, 
the hope of escape from his bondage. At a time 
when more than four hundred savages were col- 
lected together at Chillicothe, for the purpose of 
planning a grand attack upon the white settle- 
ments of Kentucky, he arose early in the morning, 
and was permitted to go forth, as usual, to hunt. 
He contrived to secrete a little food, enough for 
one meal, and with this slender provision he un- 
dertook to find his way to his own country. 

In less than five days, he traversed a distance of 
one hundred and sixty miles, and crossed, in the mean 
9 



98 HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 



time, the Ohio and several smaller rivers — making 
but one meal on the whole journey. His friends were 
of course overjoyed to see him again, notwithstand- 
ing the intelligence he brought with him of the formi- 
dable assault about to be made by the savages on 
some of the settlements. Directed and encouraged 
by Boone, however, they soon put the station of 
Boonesborough in a tolerable state of defence. 

The appearance of the enemy was now anxious- 
ly anticipated. The escape of one of Boone's 
companions brought news to the fort, that, in con- 
sequence of the escape of the latter, they had 
concluded to postpone the expedition for three 
weeks. Meanwhile the garrison was joined by 
some fresh hunters, and all of them were in such 
high spirits, that Boone determined to " steal a 
march" upon the Indians. 

With nineteen select companions, he set out 
from the fort, with the view of surprising an Indian 
village on the Scioto River. Having arrived with- 
in four miles of the place, they were met by thirty 
savages, who were marching to join the main 
body of their countrymen at Chillicothe. A skir- 
mish ensued, which terminated in the flight of the 
enemy. Boone lost not a man of his party. They 
now turned about for home again, and having, on 
the sixth day of their march, passed the Indian 
army on its way to Boonesborough, unperceived, 
on the seventh they arrived at the fort. 

On the very next day, the Indians made their 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 99 

appearance, under the command of Captain Du- 
quesne and eleven other Canadian Frenchmen, 
and a number of savage chiefs ; and the British 
flag was displayed in the centre of their force. 
They immediately surrounded the fort, and sent in 
a regular summons, inviting Boone to surrender. 
He requested two days for consideration, and they 
were foolish enough to grant him that time, which 
the garrison, numbering about fifty men, made the 
best possible use of in the way of preparation. 

At the end of the forty-eight hours, Boone made 
his appearance on the bastions of the fort, thanked 
the Canadian commander for the leisure allowed 
him, and made known the determination of the 
garrison to defend themselves to the last drop of 
their blood. 

Duquesne now, in his turn, undertook to carry 
his point by deception. He said that his only ob- 
ject was to take the garrison prisoners, and to 
treat them well ; and he promised that, if nine of 
the principal men would come out and make a 
treaty with him, he would retire with his forces, on 
condition of the garrison's swearing allegiance to 
the king of England. 

Boone thought he should at least gain time by 
treating ; and he therefore agreed to the conference, 
which took place within fifty yards of the gate of 
the fort. He could not help observing, with some 
anxiety, in the course of it, that many of the In- 
dians, who had no concern with the consulting 



100 HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 



parties, seemed to be lurking about them with a 
suspicious and hostile air. The articles of agree- 
ment, which were quite brief, being signed, Boone 
was informed that it was customary in such cases 
that two of the Indians should shake hands with 
each one of the whites. This was granted ; and 
the Indians, coming on, accordingly, commenced a 
struggle to take the whites prisoners, and drag 
them off. But Boone's men were too quick for 
them. They broke away, and ran for the fort ; and 
all of them reached it in safety, amidst a shower 
of musket-balls which followed them, with the ex- 
ception of one man, who was wounded. 

The enemy now commenced an unremitting at- 
tack ; and not a direct one only, for they attempted 
to undermine the fort, no doubt at the suggestion 
of the Canadians. But this attempt met with no 
success. The brave garrison resisted, and thwarted 
the savages at every turn ; and at length, on the 
twentieth of August, they abandoned the siege, and 
marched off. They had lost thirty-seven men 
killed, while of the whites only two had been 
killed and four wounded. 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 101 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Sketches of the History of Kentucky and other Sections* 
Expedition by the Hunters against the Indians. Battle 
with the Savages. Story about Black Fish. Expedi- 
tion of the English and Indians against the Ken- 
tuckians. Attack on Ruddle's Station. How it ended. 
Some of the Kentuckians carried off captive. How 
one of them escaped from the Indians. 

By the commencement of the year 1779, the 
white settlements of Kentucky had become so con- 
siderable, that thoughts began to be entertained, 
among the hunters at the various stations, of join- 
ing in one common expedition, which should boldly 
march into the very heart of the enemy's territory 
in Ohio, and lay waste their villages far and wide. 
A body of volunteers for this purpose collected, to 
the number of about two hundred, early in the 
summer, at Harrodsburg. The command of the 
expedition was given to Colonel Bowman, assisted 
by Harrod, Logan and others. 

It was near the sunset of a hot day in July, that 
this adventurous party, after a long and weary 
march, reached Chillicothe, undiscovered. It was 
concluded to defer the assault until the next morn- 
ing. The force was divided into two detach- 
ments ; one under the command of Bowman, and 
the other of Logan. The two undertook in con- 
cert to surround the village, and attack it at the 
9* 



102 HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 



same moment. Logan's party repaired to the 
place agreed upon, and there waited for the signal 
which Bowman was to give. An accident now led 
to their discovery ; and the women and children 
of the enemy fled for the woods, while their war- 
riors, all together, took possession of a strong 
cabin. Logan's party marched in, and occupied 
some of the deserted cabins. 

It was now broad daylight, and Logan, perceiv- 
ing the necessity of bringing matters to a close, 
ordered his men to tear off the Indian cabin-doors, 
and each to carry one before him, as a breast- 
work, in advancing upon the fortified house. But 
just as they were commencing this movement, 
Bowman, who was the superior officer of the party, 
sent word to Logan to retreat. This embarrassed 
the advancing party exceedingly, for their retreat 
could only take place over an open prairie, and 
must be exposed to the covert fire of the Indians. 
Every man undertook to shift for himself, and 
they all made for the woods at their utmost speed. 
Some fell by the enemy's bullets, as they crossed 
the prairie ; the stragglers, however, reassembled 
a little beyond it, and resumed something like 
order. 

The Indians now boldly sallied out against the 
whites, commanded by a well-known chief, whose 
name was Black Fish. There were only thirty 
of them ; but Bowman's party, having once been 
thrown into disorder, continued to fly before them, 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 103 



and were severely pressed. His force halted, at 
length, in a low and sheltered ground ; and here 
Logan, and a small party, mounted on some pack- 
horses, made a charge upon the Indians. This 
staggered them ; Black Fish was killed ; and his 
countrymen, in their turn, took to flight. The 
whites then pursued their way home without fur- 
ther molestation. They had already lost nine men 
killed, and one wounded, 

The next season after this unfortunate expedi- 
tion, the British commandant at Detroit deter- 
mined upon making a violent attack on the 
Kentucky settlements, in concert with the Indians. 
The expedition comprised a force of six hundred 
Canadians and savages, under the command of 
Colonel Byrd, a British officer. The summer of 
1780 proving uncommonly wet, so that all the 
streams were full to overflowing, the march was 
somewhat delayed ; but on the twenty-second of 
June, he arrived at " Ruddle's Station," on Lick- 
ing River — his army being now swelled, by fresh 
reinforcements of savages, to a force of about one 
thousand men. 

Ruddle's Station was a new stockade fort, inca- 
pable of any defence against artillery, of which 
Byrd had two pieces with him. Nor had the gar- 
rison any notice of his approach, for the excessive 
rains had driven in the wood-cutters to seek shel- 
ter under the roof ; and the first discovery of the 
expedition was made to the Kentuckians by the 



104 HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 

discharge . of the cannon close under the fort. 
Byrd immediately after sent in a flag, demanding 
a surrender at discretion. Ruddle refused to do 
so, except on condition that those who surren- 
dered should be prisoners of the British, and not 
of the Indians. 

This was agreed to, and the gates were opened. 
The savages rushed in, and each laid hands on 
the first person that fell in his way. Thus they 
not only became prisoners to the Indians, but, 
what was much worse, husbands, wives, children 
and parents were dispersed and separated from 
each other in the most cruel manner. Colonel 
Byrd alleged, in excuse for himself, that he was 
wholly unable to control his savage allies. 

The troops soon after commenced their march 
home, carrying off their prisoners, all of whom 
were given over to the Indians. There is a sin- 
gular story told by Mr. Flint of the escape of one 
of these unfortunate people from his masters. 

This man's name was Hinkston. It is said that 
he was remarkable for his tact and skill as a wood- 
man, — as indeed were most of the early settlers of 
the west, — and it is certain that he evinced his 
powers on this occasion to very good advantage. 

On the second night of their march, the In- 
dians encamped near the banks of the river. It 
rained, and the camp-fires were not kindled until 
after the dusk of evening. Part of the savages 
guarded the prisoners, and part kindled the fires. 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 105 



While they were so occupied, Hinkston sprang 
away from them. The alarm was given, and the 
Indians pursued him in every direction. He ran 
but a little distance before he laid down behind a 
great log, in the deep shade of a spreading tree. 
As soon as he perceived, that the uproar, occa- 
sioned by his escape, had subsided, he recom- 
menced his flight, as silently as possible. The 
night was profoundly dark ; and even his experi- 
ence could discern no marks by which to steer. 

After travelling some time, as he supposed, in 
the direction of Lexington, he found to his terror, 
that he had circled back in sight of the camp-fires 
again. There was no mark in the sky. He could 
not see the moss on the trees ; and could think of 
no clue to the points of the compass. Here he 
availed himself of his woodland skill. It occurred 
to him, that, although he could not ascertain the 
direction of the air by his feelings, he might in 
another way. He dipped his hand in the water. 
When he raised it, he knew that evaporation and 
coolness would take place on that side of his hand 
from which the wind came. He had observed 
that the wind was in the west at sunset. Guided 
by this sure indication, he once more resumed his 
flight. After travelling for some time, he sat 
down, exhausted, at the foot of a tree, and fell 
asleep. 

Just before day arose a dense fog, in which a 
man could not be seen at any distance. This 



106 HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 



saved him, when the light of dawn appeared. His 
ear was assailed with the howl of wolves, the 
bleating of fawns, the gobbling of turkeys, the 
hooting of owls, and the cries of the wild animals 
of the wilderness. He was enough acquainted 
with savage customs, to be aware, that these cries 
were savage imitations, to entice the animals with- 
in the reach of their rifles. They pointed out to 
him, also, his own danger. He found himself 
more than once within a few yards of the foe. 
But he escaped all the dangers, and arrived safe 
at Lexington. He reached there eight days after 
the capture of Ruddle's Station, and brought the 
first intelligence of that event.* 



CHAPTER XV. 

The Kentuckians make another Expedition against the 
Indians in Ohio, What Effect it had. The Savages 
attack McAfee's Station. Skirmish ivith JWAfee, and 
how the latter shot one Man in the Mouth. How the 
Women helped the Men to fight the Savages. Attack 
upon Bryant's Station. The Indians driven off. 

The panic occasioned throughout the western 
territories by the expedition described in the last 
chapter, determined the Kentuckians to make one 
more spirited and united exertion against the 



* Flint's History. 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 107 

northern Indians. It was clearly more necessary 
than ever, if they intended to live in any thing 
like tolerable security for the future, that some 
check should be given to this terrible and restless 
enemy. 

A muster of four fifths of all the whites at all 
the settlements, was called to meet at the mouth 
of Licking River, in Kentucky, on the seventh of 
July. The party, which was under the command 
of General Clark, embarked in transport-boats on 
the Ohio, and on the second of August landed at 
the place where Cincinnati now stands. The 
army marched in two divisions, and consisted of 
nine hundred and seventy men. Arriving at some 
of the Indian towns on the sixth, they found them 
deserted, the inhabitants having received notice of 
their approach by a deserter. 

At two o'clock in the afternoon of the seventh, 
they reached Piqua, a large Indian settlement, and 
were attacked, as they advanced upon it, by the 
savages, who concealed themselves among the high 
weeds that skirted the town. The piece of cannon 
brought with the expedition was directed against 
the enemy ; and, by a vigorous charge on all sides, 
they were at length forced to retreat, leaving about 
twenty killed on each side. The troops destroyed 
several hundred acres of growing corn, and then 
commenced their return home. 

But the. savages were only checked — by no 
means discouraged — by this defeat. In the spring 



108 HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 

of 1781, they made frequent attacks upon almost all 
the various stations and settlements throughout the 
country. Among others, two men of the name of 
M'Afee, of M'Afee's Station, near Harrodsburg, 
were fired upon. One of them fell. The other 
ran for the fort, which was distant a quarter of a 
mile. He was met by an Indian. They presented 
their rifles at each other, so near that the muzzles 
almost touched. The gun of the Indian missed 
fire, and he fell dead, a moment after, under the 
charge of M r Afee. 

Two men, on hearing the firing, came out from 
the fort. M'Afee warned them not to advance ; 
but one of them, not heeding his caution, ran to 
look at the dead Indian. Concealed foes inter- 
cepted his return, and now he was obliged to com- 
pete with them for his life. He sprang from tree 
to tree, and they pursued him — his object being to 
avoid a shot, and theirs to gain one. He reached 
a fence, fifty yards from the fort, in safety ; and 
though he exposed himself in climbing it, he escaped 
the shots of the enemy. 

An Indian reached out his head from behind a 
tree, to take fresh aim, and M'Afee shot him in 
the mouth, after which he reached the fort un- 
touched. The other man was equally fortunate. 
The Indians immediately made a violent attack on 
the fort, and continued it for two hours ; but the 
women went to moulding and melting bullets, 
and the men discharged them with such spirit, that 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 109 



the enemy were soon discouraged, gave over their 
design, and retreated: 

In August, 1782, a grand assemblage of the 
warriors of different tribes took place at Chillicothe, 
with the view of planning a more effective expedi- 
tion against the whites. They were aided on this 
occasion by the counsels of M'Kee and Girty, two 
renegado white men, who had given up civilized 
life for the company of the savages, Girty is said 
to have played the orator. He described to the 
Indians, in glowing terms, the delights of the 
country of cane, clover^ deer and buffaloes, and 
the charming valleys of Kentucky, for the posses- 
sion of which so much blood had been shed. He 
warned them that, unless the whites should be 
driven off immediately, it would soon be impossible 
to do it. His speech was received with yells of 
applause, and the savage army took up its line of 
march for Kentucky, 

The first point of attack was Bryant's Station, 
which consisted of forty cabins, built in an oblong 
form, and fortified with block-houses at the four 
corners. They attempted, in the first place, to 
gain the place by stratagem. A party of one hun- 
dred, says a historian, attacked the south-east 
angle, with a view to draw the whole attention of 
the garrison to that point. The great body of the 
enemy, to the number of five hundred, lay con- 
cealed among the weeds upon the opposite side of 
the station, and within pistol-shot of the spring, 
10 



110 HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 

from which it was supplied with water. Thi3 
stratagem was predicated on the belief, that the 
people would all crowd to the point where the at- 
tack commenced, and leave the opposite one wholly 
undefended. The garrison, however, compre- 
hended the whole purpose ; and, instead of return- 
ing the fire, instantly commenced repairing the 
palisades, and putting the station in a condition of 
defence. Aware that the Indians were concealed 
near the spring, they were assured that they would 
not fire, until they saw the men repairing to that 
point. The women, in this confidence, ran to the 
spring, and drew water for the supply of the garri- 
son, within shooting distance of the concealed 
Indians. When a sufficiency of water had been 
drawn, and the station put in such a state of de- 
fence as such a short notice might furnish, thir- 
teen men were sent out in the direction where the 
fire commenced. They were fired upon by one 
hundred Indians, and the ambuscade rushed upon 
the side of the fort which they deemed was now 
without defence. Their disappointment may be 
imagined, when they found every thing prepared 
for their reception. A well-directed fire from the 
garrison put the savages to flight. Some of the 
more desperate and daring approached sufficiently 
near to fire the houses, some of which were con- 
sumed. But an easterly wind providentially arose, 
and drove the flames from the mass of the buildings, 
and the garrison was saved. The enemy withdrew 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. Ill 



and concealed themselves on the bank of the creek 
near the spring. They had been, in some way, 
informed of the despatch of the two men to Lex- 
ington for aid ; and they arranged an ambuscade, 
to intercept such forces as might be sent, on their 
approach to the station. 

When this reinforcement came in sight, the 
firing had ceased. No enemy was visible ; and they 
drew near in the confidence that they had come 
on a false alarm. They rode forward through a 
lane, which was ambuscaded for one hundred 
yards on either side by Indians. The mounted 
men created a dense cloud of dust as they moved 
along. The Indians fired upon them close at 
hand, but the obscuring dust hindered their aim. 
The sixteen rode through this close fire unharmed, 
and without having even a horse wounded. The 
footmen were less fortunate. They were ap- 
proaching the garrison through a thick corn-field, 
and in a direction to have reached it unobserved 
by the savages. But hearing the firing on their 
mounted companions, they rushed to their aid, and 
were intercepted by masses of the savages, con- 
stantly increasing between them and the station. 
They would all have fallen, but for the thickness 
of the corn-field. These brave men reached the 
fort, with the loss of two killed and four wounded. 
The cattle and sheep that came in towards the 
garrison, as usual, in the evening, were mostly 
destroyed. 



112 HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 

A little after sunset, the famous Girty covertly 
approached the garrison, and on a sudden made 
himself visible on a stump, whence he could be 
heard by the people within, and demanded a sur- 
render of the place. He managed his proposals 
with no little art, assigning, as a reason for making 
them, that they were dictated by his humanity ; 
that, in case of a surrender, he could answer for 
the security of the prisoners, and that, in the 
event of taking the garrison by storm, he could 
not ; that cannon were approaching with a rein- 
forcement, and would arrive that night ; in which 
case they must be sensible, that defence of the 
place would be wholly unavailing. His imposing 
manner had the more effect in producing conster- 
nation, as the garrison knew, that the same foes 
had recently used cannon in the attack of Rud- 
dle's and Martin's Stations. In the course of his 
harangue, Girty demanded of the garrison, if they 
knew who it was that addressed them. 

A young man by the name of Reynolds, ob- 
serving the depressing effect of this speech, came 
forward, and answered him to this effect — that 
they did know him well ; and that he was held in 
such detestation and contempt, that he himself 
had named a worthless dog, that he owned, Simon 
Girty ; that the garrison, too, expected reinforce- 
ments enough, to give an account of the cowardly 
wretches that followed him; that he, for his part, 
held them in so much contempt, that he should 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 113 

disdain to discharge fire-arms upon them, and that, 
if they broke into the fort, he had prepared a great 
number of switches, which, he had no doubt, would 
be sufficient to drive the naked rascals out of the 
country. 

Girty seemed very little flattered or edified with 
such an impolite reply, and, affecting to deplore 
their obstinacy and infatuation, speedily retired. 
During the night, a small party was left, to keep up 
occasional firing, and the semblance of siege, but 
the main body marched hastily away to the lower 
Blue Licks. The Indians and Canadians exceed- 
ed six hundred, and the besieged numbered but 
forty-two. The Indians must have suffered a con- 
siderable loss, but the amount is not known.* 

Such is the account which the historians of 
these early settlements give of the celebrated as- 
sault upon Bryant's Station ; and such was the har- 
dihood and the stern courage of the gallant hunters 
who first opened the forests of the western wilder- 
ness to the sunshine. 



* Flint's History. 

10* 



114 HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

Skirmishes with the Indians* How Women were engaged* 
Battle between a Negro and an Indian. A Family at-> 
tacked by an Indian Party. A New England Party 
of Emigrants attacked on the Ohio River. Story 
about a Boy tvho ivas wounded. Cherokee War, 
Battle between Mrs. Mason and the Savages, in 
Tennessee. 

The adventures which we have thus far related 
have been principally those in which the hunters 
were engaged with the Indians. It frequently hap- 
pened, however, that the Women — wives, mothers 
and sisters of the early settlers — were called upon 
to bear a distinguished part in the romantic and 
stirring scenes of the times. 

In the course of the year 1782, a party of sav- 
ages approached a house near what was commonly 
entitled the " Crab Orchard," in the close vicinity 
of one of the Kentucky stations. The only oc- 
cupants, on this occasion, were a woman, with 
three children, and a negro servant. 

One of the Indians went into the house, and 
rushed towards the negro, while a little girl in- 
stantly closed the door between him and the re- 
mainder of the party. The negro grappled with 
the Indian, and threw him down. The woman 
seized an axe, and killed him with a well-directed 
blow on the head. The Indians on the outside, 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 115 



hearing the noise within, attempted to cut down 
the door with their tomahawks ; but a body of 
armed men, who happened to be passing near the 
house, coming within sight at this moment, they 
hastily took to flight. 

It was several years after this event that, in an- 
other section of the western country, a party of 
fourteen of the enemy attacked a family living 
nearly alone in the woods. " It consisted,' 5 as Mr. 
Flint informs us, " of the mother, two sons of ma- 
ture age, a widowed daughter, with an infant in 
her arms, two grown daughters, and a daughter of 
ten years. They occupied a double cabin. In 
one division were the two grown daughters and the 
smaller girl. In the other, the remainder of the 
family. At evening twilight, a knocking was 
heard at the door of the latter, asking in good 
English, and the customary phrase of the country, 
• Who keeps house V As the sons were opening 
the door, the mother forbade, affirming that there 
were Indians there. The young men sprang to 
their guns. 

" The Indians, being refused admittance, made 
an effort at the opposite door. They beat open the 
door of that room with a rail. They endeavored to 
take the three girls prisoners. The little girl 
escaped, and might have evaded danger in the 
darkness and the woods. But the forlorn child 
ran towards the other door, and cried for help, 
The brothers wished to fly to her relief, but the 



116 HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 



mother forbade her door to be opened. The mer- 
ciless tomahawk soon hushed the cries of the dis- 
tracted girl by murdering her. While a part of 
the Indians were murdering this child, and con- 
fining the other girl that was made prisoner, the 
third defended herself with a knife, which she 
was using at her loom, at the moment of attack. 
The heroism of this girl was unavailing. She 
killed one Indian, and was herself killed by 
another. 

" The Indians, in possession of one half the 
house, fired it. The persons confined in the other 
part of the cabin had now to choose between ex- 
posure to the flames, spreading towards them, or the 
tomahawks of the savages. The latter stationed 
themselves in the dark angles of the fence, while the 
bright glare of the flames would expose, as a clear 
mark, every person who should escape. One son 
took charge of his aged and infirm mother ; and the 
other of his widowed sister and her infant. The 
brothers separated with their charge, endeavoring 
to spring over the fence at different points. The 
mother was shot dead in attempting to cross. The 
other brother was killed, gallantly defending his 
sister. The widowed sister, her infant, and one of 
the brothers, escaped the massacre. 

" These persons alarmed the settlement. Thirty 
men, commanded by Colonel John Edwards, ar- 
rived next day to witness the horrid spectacle pre- 
sented by this scene of murder and ruin. Con- 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 117 

siderable snow had fallen, and it was easy to 
pursue the Indians by their trail. In the evening 
of that day, they came upon the expiring body of 
the young woman, apparently murdered but a few 
moments before their arrival. The Indians had 
been premonished of their pursuit, by the barking 
of a dog that followed them. They overtook and 
killed two of the Indians, who had apparently 
staid behind as victims to secure the escape of 
the rest."* 

There were several women and children on 
board a boat which, in the spring of 1791, carried 
a party of emigrants from New England down 
the Ohio River. Among these passengers was 
Captain Hubbell, of Vermont. The savages at- 
tacked this boat in three canoes, filled with their 
armed and painted warriors. Never, say the early 
historians, was a contest maintained with more 
desperate bravery. The enemy attempted to 
board the boat ; and all sorts of weapons were used 
in the defence. Captain Hubbell, having had the 
lock of his gun knocked off by an Indian bullet, 
and being himself severely wounded, discharged 
his shattered musket by firing it with a brand. 

At length, the Indians paddled off, to attack a 
smaller boat which now made its appearance far- 
ther up the river ; and in this enterprise they were 
more successful, for the people on board surren- 
dered it without opposition, and made for the 



* Flint's History. 



118 HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 

shore, leaving the captain and a boy killed, and 
the women all taken prisoners. This was a great 
triumph for the savages ; and they came paddling 
back, with the women, (seated in the boat so as to 
serve the purpose of a screen,) to renew their at- 
tack upon Hubbell. They were, however, beaten 
off a second time, not without some hazard of 
hitting the unfortunate prisoners with the bullets 
intended for their savage captors. 

This skirmish was so earnest, that HubbelPs 
boat was in the mean time suffered, before he was 
aware of the circumstance, to drift down close by 
the shore of the river where there were several 
hundreds of the enemy collected. All that the 
party on board could do now, was, to avoid expo- 
sure, by stooping, until they should pass the Indian 
fire. One man, seeing a fine opportunity, as he 
thought, of shooting one of the enemy, as the boat 
drifted by, could not forbear improving it. He 
raised his head to take aim, and was instantly him- 
self shot dead. 

When they had floated down far enough to 
escape the enemy's fire, two only, of the nine fight- 
ing men on board, were found to be unwounded. 
One was mortally injured by a musket-shot, and 
two were killed. A little boy now requested 
the people around him to remove a ball, which 
had lodged in the skin of his forehead. When 
this was taken out, he requested them to re- 
move a piece of bone which another shot had 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 119 

fractured from his elbow. His mother asked him, 
why he had said nothing about his wounds during 
the action. " Because/' said he, " Captain Hub- 
bell told us to make no noise." 

Several years later than the date of this skirmish, 
being early in the winter of 1795 — 6, a party of 
Cherokee Indians, infuriated by the murder of one 
of their countrymen by an American, attacked and 
killed a man named Mason, about twelve miles 
from Knoxville, in Tennessee. During the night, 
Mason heard a noise in his stable, and stepped out 
to ascertain the cause, when the enemy, coming be- 
tween him and the door, intercepted his return. 
He fled, but was fired upon, and wounded. He 
reached a cavern, at the distance of a quarter of a 
mile from his house, out of which, already welter- 
ing in his blood, he was dragged and murdered. 

Having finished this business, the savages, un- 
satisfied with slaughter, returned to the house, to 
despatch his wife and children. Mrs. Mason, 
knowing nothing of her husband's fate, heard them 
talking to each other as they approached the house, 
and her first impression was that her neighbors, 
aroused by the firing, had come to her assistance. 
But she soon discovered that the conversation was 
carried on neither in German or English, both which 
languages she understood ; and the conclusion in 
her mind was, that these were savages, who intended 
to attack the house. 



120 HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 

Fortunately, that very morning she had happened 
to learn from her husband how the double trigger 
of his rifle was set ; and she now took down that 
weapon from its place against the wall, it being 
ready loaded with a full charge. Her children 
were not yet awakened by the noise, and she took 
care not to arouse them. She placed herself directly 
opposite the opening which would be made by the 
enemy in forcing the door. This she not only shut, 
but barred it with benches and tables. 

Her husband came not, and she began to appre- 
hend the reality of what had occurred to him. She 
was alone, too, in the darkness, and the yelling sav- 
ages were now close about the house, pressing for 
entrance. At this moment, the body of one of them 
was thrust into the door-passage, and just filled it, 
while he struggled hard for a complete admittance j 
and two or three more, just behind him, were en- 
deavoring to push him forward. 

She set the trigger of the rifle, putting the muz- 
zle near the body of the foremost, in such a direc- 
tion that the ball, after passing through his body, 
would penetrate those in the rear. She fired, and 
the foremost Indian fell, while the second one ut- 
tered a scream of mortal agony. She knew the 
policy of keeping a profound silence, and the enemy 
were in consequence led to believe that there were 
a number of armed men in the house. They soon 
made their retreat, stopping only to take three 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 121 



horses with them from the stable, which they set 
on fire. It was afterwards ascertained that this he* 
roic women had saved herself and her five children 
from the attack of twenty-five assailants. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

Stories about Persons who were taken captive by the In- 
dians. Hoiv Moses Heivitt was treated by them, and 
how he escaped. Skirmish which Mr. Meigs had with a 
Party of Savages. History of the earliest Settlements 
in Ohio. About Maiietta. About Cincinnati. About 
General Putnam. 

It is not much to be wondered at, that the settlers 
dreaded to fall into the hands of the Indians as pris- 
oners, almost as much as they dreaded the blow of 
the tomahawk itself on the spot. They were not 
always treated, indeed, in a manner equally cruel ; 
but, very generally, those who became captives 
were quite as much to be pitied as those who were 
killed. The excitement of war, and the injuries 
which the savages doubtless received, in many in- 
stances, from individual whites on the frontiers, are 
certainly some apology for the determined spirit 
of resentment which they seemed to entertain. 

A singular instance of their ingenuity in devising 
new kinds of torture occurred during the year 1791, 
in the case of a young man named Moses Hewitt, 
who lived on the Little Hockhocking River. He 
11 



122 HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 

belonged to the Marietta settlement, so called, 
which was the first settlement made by white men 
in all the territory of what is now Ohio. Some ac- 
count of it ought to be given, before we tell the 
story of poor Hewitt. 

The company who settled Marietta, in 1788, were 
forty-seven in number. They came from Massa- 
chusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut ; and their 
leader was General Rufus Putnam, a distinguished 
citizen of New England. Their first business was to 
build a stockade fort of sufficient strength to secure 
them against the ordinary attacks of the savages. 
They deadened the standing trees, and cut down 
enough of them to admit of their planting fifty acres 
of corn. 

In the autumn, twenty more families joined them, 
chiefly old and hardy soldiers from New England, 
who had fought during the revolutionary war. 
The Indians seemed to be aware of their character, 
and they gave them but little trouble for many 
years, so that the Marietta settlement flourished 
quite as much as any other in the western terri- 
tories. 

But Moses Hewitt was taken prisoner by a party 
of the Indians, who always, in war time, lurked 
about every house of the whites. He w r as remark- 
able for the suppleness of his limbs, and the swift- 
ness of his running. The Indians, for the sake 
of sport, gave him an opportunity to run races with 
their best runners, and he beat them all with ease. 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 



123 



This they pretended to be pleased with, though their 
envy was no doubt excited. They did not, however, 
determine to kill him, at least not immediately ; but, 
being destitute of provisions, and obliged to hunt 
for wild game, they concluded to fasten him in such 
a manner that they might leave him alone with se- 
curity. 

With this view, and perhaps intending at the 
same time to torture him, they confined his wrists 
by crossing them, and binding them firmly with a 
cord. They then tied his arms to a stake, so as part- 
ly to raise the upper part of his body. His legs were 
also fastened closely together ; and then they partly 
cut off a young sapling near by, bending it down, so 
that the weight of the lower part of his body would 
counterbalance the springing force of the curved 
tree. Thus he was partially raised by his hands 
and feet, in a way most horribly painful, and yet in 
a position where death must be lingering and slow. 
It was equal to the torture of killing a man by drop- 
ping water on the head. 

Fortunately for the poor fellow, he had remarka- 
bly small wrist bones. When left alone to meditate 
upon his unhappy condition, he contrived, though not 
without bruising severely the flesh of his arms, to 
get them out of the cord; and he afterwards suc- 
ceeded also in extricating his legs. He picked up 
a few scraps of the dried meat which the Indians 
had scattered behind them, and commenced his 
flight through the woods, walking as much as 



124 HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 

possible on the trunks of fallen trees, following a 
winding and obscure path, and in every other way 
doing his utmost to avoid the pursuit of his captors. 
Such was the skill of his management, that he com- 
pletely baffled them. They followed him closely, 
but he reached Marietta after an absence of four- 
teen days, much bruised and emaciated, as well as 
nearly starved, but still triumphant over his savage 
enemies. 

Another remarkable instance of a hair-breadth 
escape occurred in Ohio, a year or two after the one 
just related, in the case of Mr. Meigs, then one of 
the young settlers of Marietta, and since that time 
governor of the state, and postmaster-general of the 
United States. 

Being a hard-working man, he was returning at 
night from the labors of the field to his house, in 
company with a Mr. Symonds and a black boy. 
The Indians fired upon Symonds, and wounded 
him ; but he escaped their pursuit by reaching the 
river, which was not far distant, and swimming. 
The black boy was in the meantime scalped. An 
Indian, armed only with a tomahawk, motioned Mr. 
Meigs to surrender. Instead of surrendering, he 
advanced upon the savage with his gun presented, 
though not loaded. As they came together, the 
one struck with his gun and the other with his tom- 
ahawk. Meigs was stunned by the blow, but re- 
covered, and fled, pursued by the Indian. The lat- 
ter, seeing him likely to escape, sent his tomahawk 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 125 



after him, which narrowly missed his head. Meigs 
made the best of his way home, and the Indian, 
sounding aloud war-whoop, retreated into the depths 
of the forest. 

The Marietta people not only suffered but little 
from the savages, but had but few opportunities of 
inflicting any injury upon them ; so that, for several 
years after the settlement, they killed only two of 
these cautious and wary enemies. One of them 
had mounted on the roof of a cabin, in a lonely little 
settlement, at what is called Duck Creek ; and 
there, with a disposition to satisfy his curiosity, he 
was looking down the large wooden chimney into 
the room below, to see what the family were about. 
He was discovered, and shot down. Another, who 
was found amusing himself in turning a grindstone 
at some distance from the house, — which probably 
he had never done, or seen before, — was wounded 
by a musket shot, but made his escape. 

The earliest settlers of the spot where that flour- 
ishing town, Cincinnati, now stands, went there in 
the beginning of 1790. There were about twenty 
of them. They commenced clearing trees on what 
is now the corner of Front and Main streets ; and 
three or four log cabins were built on what is Main 
street. The courses of the streets were marked on 
the trees of the then thick and heavy forest. Fish 
and game were abundant in the neighborhood ; and 
the Indians, though hostile, were not troublesome at 
this period. Twenty acres were soon planted with 
11 * 



126 HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 



corn in different parts of the settlement. The 
grinding was done with hand-mills. Flour and 
bacon, which are now seen in such plenty in the 
Cincinnati market, were then to be obtained only 
from the older settlements. The tables were made 
rudely of split planks, and even the cooking and 
eating dishes also of wood. The dress of the men 
was hunting shirts of domestic fabric, this dress be- 
ing bound with a belt or girdle, in which was a 
knife, or a tomahawk. The lower part of the dress 
was made of deer-skin. The women wore altogether 
garments of their own manufacture. 

Notwithstanding the fury of the war with the 
savages which raged during the year 1792, the new 
settlement was that season increased by the arrival 
of between forty and fifty emigrants. A church was 
erected, and a school established, containing thirty 
scholars. The next year was unfavorable to the 
growth of Cincinnati : the small-pox prevailed to 
such an extent as to carry off one third of the little 
population of the place. 

But soon after this, an end was at length put to 
all the long-continued hostilities of the Indian 
tribes of the north-west, by the decisive victory 
obtained by the army of General Wayne over their 
combined forces, near Greenville, in Ohio, where a 
treaty of peace was concluded with them, in Au- 
gust, 1795. From this time, the troubles of the 
western settlers were no more heard of Fresh par- 
ties of emigrants came flocking in from all other 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 127 

sections of the country; and the settlements of 
Ohio, Tennessee and Kentucky, in particular, which 
had been the chief theatre of the Indian wars, now 
became the most prosperous and rapidly-growing 
which have ever been founded by American enter- 
prise, intelligence and industry. The population of 
Ohio, which, in 1790, as I have already stated, was 
only about three thousand, had increased, in 1820, 
to over half a million, and is now probably more than 
twice that amount. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

About the Mode of Life led by the early Settlers of the West- 
ern Country. The Process by which they reached their 
Destination, How they lived after they got there. Their 
Houses, Farms, Fences and Tools. Their Improve- 
ments from Year to Year ; and how Los; Houses were 
given up for better ones. 

My young readers will naturally enough be curi- 
ous to know something more than I have told them 
about the kind of life which the early settlers led in 
the humble sphere of their private and daily duties. 
Thus far I have only noticed the part they were 
called upon to take in their contest with the Indians. 

The emigrants from the Atlantic states for the west 
very seldom took with them their flocks or herds ; 
this was the case only, perhaps, with such as went 
from the western parts of Pennsylvania and Vir- 
ginia, and of course had comparatively but a short 



128 HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES* 



distance to travel. An Ohio icagon — as the term 
is in New England even to this day — was generally 
provided ; that is, a large, long, stout wagon, 
covered over with sail-cloth, and drawn by two or 
four horses. In this were piled away all the most 
important articles of domestic furniture which 
could be conveniently carried in such a vehicle, 
together with a gun, a dog, an old family Bible, 
perhaps, and, last of all, the family themselves, 
seated in the front part of the wagon. 

They did not sleep in this wagon on their way ; 
but generally at a tavern, where also they tarried 
to take breakfast and supper, dining upon cold 
provisions by the side of a brook. At length, they 
arrived at some point on the Ohio River, or some 
of its branches, where land-travelling was to be 
exchanged for navigation. The horses, and fre- 
quently the wagon also, were then sold ; and a 
large flat-bottomed boat either purchased or made, 
in which several families embarked together, to 
descend the Ohio, as far as might be desirable 
for reaching the final destination of the party. 

When the emigrant arrived at the place where 
he proposed to establish his home, whether in the 
woods of Ohio, Kentucky or Indiana, his first 
business was to clear away the trees from the spot 
where his house was to stand. Commonly the 
mode of building was as follows : Straight trees 
were felled, of a size to be drawn, by a common 
small team, to the building spot, without great in- 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 129 

convenience. This drawing was called "snaking." 
The most usual form of a large house was that 
called a "double cabin;" that is, two square 
rooms, or " pens/' with an open entry-space be- 
tween, connected by a roof above and a floor be- 
low, so as to make the length of the tenement about 
three times its breadth. 

In the open space the family took their meals 
during the warmer months ; and it served the pur- 
pose of both kitchen and lumber-room. The logs 
of which these cabins were made were notched 
on to each other at the corners, so as to hold very 
firmly together. The roof was covered with thin, 
rough " splits " or slabs of oak, ash or cypress, 
much like what are called clap-boards in the 
northern states. The floors were made of short, 
thick planks, confined with wooden pins. The 
wealthier settlers could find time to hew the logs 
inside, and to plane off the floors, so as to give 
them quite an air of neatness and polish. 

The chimney was the next thing in order. This 
was built of " splits" also, broad at the bottom, 
and tapering off at the top, where an opening was 
left in the roof to receive it. The interstices were 
filled with a thick coating of clay, and the outside 
plastered thick with clay mortar, mixed with 
chopped hay or straw, to make it stick. The 
hearth was made either of clay mortar, or of 
stones, where these could be conveniently obtained. 
The interstices between the logs of the walls were 



130 HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 

ill the first place " chinked" — that is, filled with 
chips and blocks driven in tight, and then covered 
over with mortar. 

The doors, too, were made of rough plank, 
from freshly-cut timber, hung, quite ingeniously, 
on large wooden hinges, and fastened with a sub- 
stantial wooden latch. The windows were square 
apertures, cut through the logs, and closed, when- 
ever necessary, by wooden shutters. 

The woods were cleared away immediately 
around this rude but comfortable dwelling, so as to 
enable the settler to cultivate a small tract of corn. 
The trees in the remaining part of his field were 
" deadened" or " girdled that is, a circle was 
cut with the axe, two or three feet from the 
ground, so as completely to divide the sap-vessels 
necessary to the life of the tree. Many of the 
trees, in all these early clearings, were split up 
into rails for fences, and a man accustomed to this 
business will make from one hundred to one hun- 
dred and fifty in a day. 

These rails are commonly laid zigzag, one 
length running nearly at right angles to the next 
one. This is sometimes called " worm-fence," 
and sometimes " Virginia fence." The rails are 
large and heavy, and the fences raised to six feet 
in height. The smaller roots and under-brush of 
the farm are cleared away by the free use of a 
sharp " grnbbing-lioe" which, together with two 
or three saws, axes, a broad axe, an adze, an auger, 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 131 



a hammer, nails, and an iron tool to split clap- 
boards, called a "froe" constitute the most neces- 
sary furniture of a back-woodsman in the western 
country. Orchards are planted within a year by 
most settlers. The log-house lasts some seven or 
eight years, and is then generally exchanged for a 
more showy one of stone, brick, or frame-work. 

Such has been the more ordinary mode of life 
followed by the early settlers. Many similar prac- 
tices are prevalent, in remote sections, to this day. 
Perhaps no circumstance has added so much to 
the convenience of travelling to the west in later 
years, as the introduction of steam-boats upon the 
Ohio and Mississippi. In other respects, the modes 
of modern emigration are quite similar to those 
adopted by General Putnam and his associates, 
more than forty years ago. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

Story of an Emigrant, who went out to Ohio, with his 
Son and Family, in 1779. How the migrating Party 
was collected. How they fought off the Indians. How 
our Hero made his first Settlement, and how much 
Corn they raised. Moves to Lexington. Goes out to 
hunt, and survey Land. Adventures in the Woods. 
Story about Crawford. 

I have given my readers, thus far, the history of 
states and settlements. I intend to relate, in this 



132 HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 



chapter, the history of one individual — a gentle- 
man who is still a distinguished citizen of Ohio, 
although he and his relatives were among the first 
adventurers who went out from the Atlantic coast 
to the territory of the west. It will be found to 
contain a good deal of curious matter ; and, being 
all true, will serve to illustrate, much better than 
the general description in my last chapter, the real 
circumstances under which the first settlements 
were made. 

The father of the gentleman referred to was an 
emigrant from Cumberland county, in Pennsyl- 
vania. It was in the fall of 1779, that he, with his 
family, including our young hero, — who, for con- 
venience sake, we shall call Harry, — left home for 
Kentucky, which was then a part of Virginia. When 
he reached the Monongahela — which, my young 
readers are aware, is a branch of the Ohio — he 
and two other men, whose families also were in 
the company, set about making three large 
"arks" for the voyage. These they were unable 
to finish until the next spring, and it was the first 
of April, 17S0, before they embarked. By adver- 
tisements all over the country, emigrants to Ken- 
tucky had been requested to meet at an island in 
the Ohio, a few miles below Pittsburg, where it 
was proposed to wait until force enough should 
assemble to enable them to pass with safety 
through the Indian territory which lay between 
them and Kentucky. 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 133 



So numerous was the crowd of adventurers at 
this time moving westward, that, in two days after 
the arrival of our party at the island, sixty-three 
boats were ready to sail in company, — some occu- 
pied by families, some by cattle belonging to them, 
and some by young men whose object was to ex- 
plore the country ; and the number of able-bodied 
men on board them all was nearly one thousand. 
Many of them were revolutionary soldiers. Such 
was our hero's father, and so were several of his 
intimate associates. 

The boats, when they commenced the voyage, 
were ranged in a sort of battle array, — the pilot- 
boats going in advance, the family-boats in the 
centre, the cattle-boats next after, and the boats 
armed and guarded by the young men bringing up 
the rear, and skirting the sides of the procession 
on the right and left. All moved onward with 
great caution, until they came abreast of some 
place on the banks which seemed proper for the 
cattle to graze ; and then they landed, and turned 
them loose for the purpose, keeping all the while, 
however, a vigilant look-out for the savages. Thus 
they went on till they arrived at Limestone, now 
Maysville, where several of the party, with their fam- 
ilies, concluded to remain, and accordingly com- 
menced on the spot the customary preparations for 
erecting their cabins. The rest of the company tar- 
ried with them but half a day, and then reembarked. 

This was the eleventh of April. At ten o'clock 
12 



134 HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 

the next morning, the pilot-boats in front made 
signals that the Indians were drawn up in battle 
array on the northern shore of the river. The 
boats immediately landed half a mile above the 
enemy, on the same side ; and it was arranged 
that half the fighting-men on board should be 
ready to jump on shore the moment the boats 
should touch it, and march down upon the Indians. 
The latter, whose number was not above one hun- 
dred and fifty, were encamped on the very spot 
where Front street now meets Broadway in the 
town of Cincinnati. They fled at sight of the 
whites, in much haste and disorder, and the latter 
pursued them several miles, but without much 
effect. 

The emigrants returned to the boats, and pro- 
ceeded on their voyage, till, on the fifteenth of 
the month, they reached Beargrass, at the " Ohio 
Falls." Here our hero's father concluded to re- 
main. He selected a spot of fine fertile land, five 
miles back from the river, with a spring in the 
centre of it. He commenced clearing off the 
wood, and was soon joined by forty more families. 
In a fortnight they had erected as many cabins, so 
arranged in four straight lines as to form a hollow 
square, and fortified with stout block-houses at the 
four corners. The cabin-doors all opened in the 
hollow square. In the centre of one of the sides 
leading to the spring was a large gateway, and 
one of the same size on the opposite side. The 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 135 



floors and doors were made of the planks of their 
boats, which were taken to pieces for the purpose. 
Port-holes were bored through the walls, to give 
the tenants, in case of necessity, an opportunity to 
fire their muskets upon an enemy without being 
themselves exposed. 

The new settlement suffered little annoyance from 
the Indians until June, and not so much then but that 
they were able to cultivate and gather in their crops 
of corn. These were amazingly abundant. Over 
one hundred bushels were sometimes raised upon an 
acre. Some garden vegetables also were cultivated 
and gathered in. They then commenced preparing 
for winter, by plastering over their cabins with clay 
mortar, getting in fuel and other things of the kind. 

In the spring of 1781, our hero's father, thinking 
this settlement to be too much exposed to the In- 
dians, moved off, with his family, one hundred miles 
into the interior of Kentucky, near where Danville 
now stands, and where the country was then rap- 
idly filling up with emigrants from Virginia : even 
here, however, he found the enemy troublesome. 
But in the fall of the year, and especially after the 
surrender of the army of Cornwallis at Yorktown 
(which virtually ended the revolution), large num- 
bers of new settlers came in, and all together found 
themselves more than a match for the savages. 

In 1784, the old gentleman moved to Lexington, 
and erected a cabin, and raised a crop of corn, on 
what are the "out-lots" of the present town. He was^ 



136 HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 



however, entitled to a " bounty/' as it was called, 
from the government, of three thousand acres of 
land above the Blue Licks (in Kentucky), in conse- 
quence of services he had rendered as a captain in 
the old French war. This land had been surveyed, 
but he wished to have it surveyed more carefully ; 
and, with this view, he concluded to visit the spot in 
person. Our hero, Harry, persuaded him to allow 
his attendance ; and a party was soon made up. 
All were mounted on good horses ; and some others, 
not ridden, were led by several of the company, for 
the purpose of bringing with them, on their return, 
a quantity of buffalo-meat for the winter use of the 
little settlement. 

The journey was tedious, for the path lay through 
a thick cane-brake most of the way ; but, on the 
evening of the second day, they arrived at what was 
supposed to be the land in question. The lines of 
the old survey, as they were marked out on the 
trees, were in the first place looked up : the next 
thing was to hunt down game enough for subsist- 
ence. An operation called " hobbling" was per- 
formed on the horses ; that is, they were confined 
in such a manner as to prevent their running away ; 
and then they were turned out to feed. The bag- 
gage of the party was hung upon trees, to keep it 
out of the reach of wolves. 

Three hunting parties were now made up, of 
which Harry and his father formed one. They 
had not gone more than five miles from the point 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 137 

of separation, before they discovered a herd of buf- 
faloes feeding. Harry undertook to get round upon 
that side of them where, as the wind blew, they 
would be least likely to scent him. His orders were 
to shoot the blackest of the herd behind the shoul- 
ders, the expected consequence of which was that 
the herd would turn about and rush towards him, 
when he would be able to bring down another. 

He followed these directions, but did not meet 
with complete success. He killed one of the ani- 
mals, but no second shot was obtained. He was 
very proud, however, of having killed his first buffa- 
lo : and as the old gentleman thought it would be 
best to move their camp to the place where the 
buffalo was brought down, Harry boldly undertook 
to lead the way six miles through the woods, back 
to the spot from which they started. He walked in 
advance, therefore, at a brisk rate, and in an hour 
or two actually found himself at the side of the camp. 
Here his father beckoned him to stop and be quiet, 
informing him, in a low voice, that it was necessary 
to take a careful survey of the spot, lest the savages 
might gain an advantage over them by lying in am- 
bush. He then went in advance himself, walking 
softly, and keenly examining every point of the 
pathway. They then explored the opposite side of 
the camp in the same manner. Satisfied, at length, 
that no enemy was near, they advanced to the fire, 
spread their blankets on the ground, and threw 
themselves down to rest ; the old gentleman not 
12* 



138 HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 



failing to admonish his son to keep an eye occa- 
sionally upon the north side of the camp, while he 
should do the same on the south. 

They had not been long on the watch, when 
Harry discovered a man lurking behind a tree, not 
very far from the camp, and apparently endeavoring 
to approach nearer without being perceived. He 
at first thought that the stranger might be one of 
their own hunters, but his slyness convinced him 
that he must be an enemy. He allowed him to 
come so near, that it was plainly to be seen he had 
no hat on, and his face was blacked after the In- 
dian custom. Harry lay still, but cocked his load- 
ed rifle, which was ready at his side. Even this 
little noise startled his father, who lay looking, with 
his back to Harry' s,in an opposite direction. " What 
are you doing V 9 he asked in a low voice. "Watch- 
ing an Indian," said Harry, " who is watching for 
a chance to fire upon us. I only want him to gain 
the next tree, and then show his head behind it." 

" Do you see more than one V- whispered the old 
gentleman. 

Harry answered in the negative ; and his father 
then advised him to be sure of his aim, and not fire 
till he gained sight of a mark in his eye. Meanwhile 
they were pretty sure of lying safe from the savage's 
aim, for they were nearly concealed behind two 
large logs, between him and them. He now showed 
half his head from behind the tree. Harry aimed, 
and pulled trigger ; but his gun missed fire. The 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES, 139 



person, hearing the noise, instantly jerked back his 
head. 

" I am sorry for that," said the old gentleman, 
evidently somewhat vexed by the failure. 

" So am I," Harry replied ; " it's the only time it 
ever failed me." 

It was two minutes before the stranger showed 
his face a second time. Then Harry aimed, and 
pulled again, and again the gun missed fire. The 
head was jerked back as before, and a voice cried 
out loudly — " Why, I believe you have been snap- 
ping at me I" It was Crawford, one of the hunters. 
He had thrown off his hat, and blackened his face, 
on purpose to frighten his companions. The old 
gentleman reprimanded him in severe terms for his 
folly ; and Harry remarked with surprise upon the 
circumstance that his rifle had twice missed fire — - 
a very uncommon thing. He showed Crawford a 
white spot on the tree behind which he had stood, — * 
a spot not larger than his eye, — and, to show him 
what a danger he had escaped, took aim at it, and 
fired ; his ball drove the bark of the white spot into 
the tree. 



140 HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 



CHAPTER XX. 

Story of the Emigrants continued. Adventure ivith a Bear, 
The Family moves again. The Indians steal some 
of their Horses. Our young Hero joins an Expedition 
against the Enemy in 1786. His Adventures as a Sol- 
dier. Skirmish with the Indians. Takes some Prison- 
ers. Stoi*y about Magery. 

The other hunters soon came in, and the whole 
party then saddled their horses, mounted, and 
moved off to the place where the buffalo was killed. 
There they encamped for the night, and feasted 
upon the choice parts of the animal. Harry found 
himself ill during the night, and in the morning it 
was discovered that he had the measles. His father 
proposed to return home with him, which was at a 
distance of seventy miles ; but the young man was 
unwilling to occasion so much trouble, and so un- 
dertook to return alone. It was a long journey to 
make through the wilderness, for a boy of only 
fourteen years of age; but his courage was good, 
and he feared nothing. 

He commenced his journey, stopping twice the 
first day, to let his horse feed upon the grass, and 
taking care to select a spot in the open woods where 
he could survey the country for a great distance 
around him. He saw abundance of game, but hav- 
ing no use for it, and being charged by his father to 
make no needless delay, he allowed it to pass 
unattacked. Towards night, coming upon a 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 141 

considerable stream, he rode up the middle of it 
about half a mile, and ascended a branch that 
poured in it, some hundred yards. This was for 
the purpose of putting his pursuers, if any there 
were, off their track. He then left the branch, 
and rode on a mile, till he found a fallen tree, 
which afforded plenty of dry fire-wood. He dis- 
mounted, "hobbled 5 ' his horse, kindled a bright 
fire, made a meal upon some of the provisions he 
had brought with him, and laid himself down to 
sleep, thinking as little as possible of his measles 
and his lonely situation. 

He started again at early dawn, expecting to 
reach home that night. About ten o'clock, he 
discovered a large bear not far from his path, and 
he succeeded, after dismounting, in killing the 
animal on the spot The carcass he could not 
use, but he determined to carry home the skin as 
a trophy. This was no easy matter, for it was 
large, heavy and greasy ; and it slipped off so 
frequently, that he found he must either leave it be- 
hind him, or stop another night on his journey. 
He concluded to adopt the latter course. The 
next day, he reached Lexington, with his bear-skin, 
about noon. His father, and the surveying party, 
returned ten days afterwards. 

Early in the spring of 1785, his father, one of 
his brothers, and himself, went through the woods to 
examine a tract of land at the distance of sixteen 
miles, which belonged to the old gentleman. He 



142 HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 

afterwards moved his whole family thither, and 
commenced clearing the land. It was not long 
before they discovered traces of Indians lurking in 
the woods around them. They therefore set about 
enclosing their little cabins in a stockade, one side 
of which was formed by the back walls of the 
cabins, and the other three by a triple line of 
strong posts or palisades, driven into the ground. 
With these precautions, they were able to get 
through with the season without suffering much 
annoyance from the Indians. 

The next summer, they were more troublesome. 
At one time, they stole several fine horses. The 
owners raised a party, pursued them, and came in 
view of them just as they had succeeded in swim- 
ming the horses across the Ohio. The Indians 
saw them, and cried out very loudly, that " they 
were altogether too late, and had better turn round 
and go home again." The whites told them, they 
were a set of thieving scoundrels, and asked them 
if they were not ashamed of themselves ? " Not 
at all," the Indians rejoined ; " not at all ; a few 
horses, now and then, are all the pay we ever get for 
the free use of our lands in Kentucky." This was 
not very agreeable to the whites, but they con- 
cluded to bear it as well as they could — especially 
since the Indian party was three times as numerous as 
their own ; and they therefore turned about, as their 
enemy advised them, and made their way home. 

In the autumn of this year took place the expe- 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 143 



dition, heretofore mentioned, of the American 
troops, commanded by General Clark, against the 
Indians of the River Wabash. Our young hero, 
though only sixteen years old at this time, volun- 
teered to join this party, and did so. He was 
present at the assault made upon the enemy's vil- 
lage on Mad River. They fought desperately on 
this occasion, as long as they could raise knife, 
gun or tomahawk. They were, however, defeated 
and driven off, and many of their women and chil- 
dren taken prisoners by the whites. 

Those who fled were pursued by the most active 
of the American detachment, and among these 
was our friend Harry, mounted on a fleet gray 
horse, and followed by some fifty of his comrades. 
He had not advanced above a mile, when he 
saw some of the enemy running along the edge of 
a thicket of hazle and plum bushes. He made 
signs to his companions to follow him close ; and, 
at the same time pointing out the flying savages, 
started off across the plain with the view of inter- 
cepting their retreat. 

On arriving within fifty yards of them, he dis- 
mounted, and raised his gun. At this moment, an 
Indian, at whom he was aiming, held up his hand 
in token of surrender, and was heard ordering the 
other savages to stop for the same purpose. Other 
white men now came up in another direction, and 
were about firing upon the enemy, when our hero 



144 HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 

cried out to tbem to forbear, for " they had sur- 
rendered. 5 ' 

The head warrk>r advanced towards him, calling' 
to his friends to follow ; and Harry advanced to 
meet him, with his hand extended. The other 
whites now rushed in, and so furious were they 
against the enemy, that it was with great exer- 
tion only that he was able to prevent the latter 
being all massacred upon the spot, Finally, they 
were led off, as prisoners, thirteen of them, in- 
cluding five women, two or three fine-looking lads, 
and one chief. When the party reached the Indian 
town again, on their return, a crowd of soldiers 
pressed round them to see the captured chief. 
Harry stepped aside to fasten his horse, and one 
of the Indian lads, who considered himself his 
prisoner, and seemed to place great confidence in 
him, followed close at his side. At this moment a 
soldier, named Curner, came running up. The lad 
thought he intended to kill him, and he instantly 
let fly an arrow at him, from the bow which he still 
carried in his hand. Luckily, Harry had just time 
to catch his arm as he discharged it, and the arrow 
was turned a little aside from its course. It passed 
through Curner's dress, and grazed his side. 

Having now gone back among the crowd which 
surrounded the prisoners, Harry perceived a man 
named Magery approaching the chieftain, with a 
suspicious expression of mischief on his counte- 
nance. " Magery," cried an officer who saw 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 145 

him, " you must not molest these prisoners." " I 
will see to that," answered Magery, and he pressed 
on. Harry had by this time reached the chief- 
tain's side, and there he stood, with his young In- 
dian near him, awaiting the issue of Magery's 
advance. The latter had now made his way 
through the crowd. 

He stepped quickly before the chiefs and sternly 
asked him, in the English language, " whether he 
was present at the battle of Blue Licks." The 
chief, not knowing the meaning of the words, or 
the object of the question, answered, " Yes." 
Magery instantly seized an axe from the hand of a 
bystander, and raised it to make a blow at the 
chief. Harry threw up his arm, to ward it off. 
The handle of the instrument struck him on the 
wrist, and nearly broke it, while the blade at the 
same moment sunk into the chieftain's head to the 
eyes. Great indignation was expressed by many 
who were present at this act of barbarity, but it 
was too late to remedy the damage already done. 
The Indian had breathed his last. 

No doubt Magery recognized in this man, or 
thought he recognized, one who was present and 
active in the bloody battle at the Blue Licks, and 
one whom, perhaps, he had met in some per- 
sonal contest. Being an irritable man, he could 
not restrain his desire of revenge ; and this he 
gratified under circumstances which certainly made 
it a dishonorable and dastardly act. 
13 



146 HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 



The expedition in which our young hero made 
his first military efforts as a volunteer, returned 
home, after doing considerable damage to the 
towns and fields of the Indians. The effect of it 
was, as usual, to make them more quiet for a time, 
though by no means to bring about any thing like 
a general peace. This was not effected, as I have 
heretofore mentioned, until after that victory of 
General Wayne over the combined tribes, which 
led to the treaty of Greenville, in 1795. From 
that period the western country enjoyed a pro- 
found peace until near the commencement of the 
last war with England, which broke out in 1812, 
and ended in 1815. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

Account of the Christian Indians, Their Missionaries. 
The Troubles they met with. Anecdotes of their Char- 
acter. They move to Ohio. How their Settlements 
were broken up. 

I shall conclude these sketches of Western 
History with some account of the Christian In- 
dians, so called. I have told so many stories of 
the barbarity and cruelty of the natives, as horri- 
ble as they are true, that I am glad to have an 
opportunity of saying something which will place 
the character of this unfortunate but noble race 
in a much more amiable light. 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 147 

The Christian Indians, then, was a name given 
to a considerable number of natives, chiefly Mo- 
hican Indians, of Connecticut and New York, and 
the Delawares of Pennsylvania, who were civilized, 
during the last century, to an extent which I shall 
now point out. 

The first efforts were made among the Mohicans, 
in 1740, almost a century since, by a few good 
missionaries employed by an ancient church called 
the German Moravians, many of which sect were 
among the earliest and best settlers of the state of 
New York. Their success for some years was 
small. The Indians treated them well enough, 
and were ready enough to learn, but some of the 
neighboring whites, who witnessed these pious ex- 
ertions of the missionaries, were so jealous as to 
mistake them for political scouts or spies employed 
by the French. My young readers will recollect 
that there were frequent wars in those days be- 
tween the French and the English. The conse- 
quence was, that the Moravians were much molest- 
ed and hindered in their endeavors to instruct and 
improve the poor savages. 

But they were by no means discouraged. They 
had already begun a small settlement in Pennsyl- 
vania, fifty or sixty miles above Philadelphia, be- 
tween the forks of the Delaware, which they 
named Bethlehem. They now stated their case to 
the governor of that province, who thereupon is- 
sued a proclamation that " all Indians who took 



148 HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 

refuge in Pennsylvania should be protected in the 
quiet practice of their religious profession." In 
consequence of this measure, the Christian Indians 
began to come in from New York and Connecti- 
cut, early in 1748, and " the Brethren" having 
purchased a tract of land for them at the junction 
of Mahony Creek with the Lehigh, they soon set- 
tled there, built a regular town and chapel, and 
named the place Gnadenshutten. By September 
of the next year, this congregation amounted to 
five hundred souls ; a second church was begun ; 
and schools for children of both sexes were put 
into operation. 

But the hostility and suspicion of the neighbor- 
ing Indian tribes, and even of the English, still 
continued. The good missionaries who labored 
among the Bethlehem Indians were in such dis- 
repute, indeed, that on one occasion, the lead- 
ing one of their number, Bishop Spangenberg, 
being about this time upon a journey, while enter- 
ing a public house, was insulted, and threatened 
with having his brains knocked out. In fine, per- 
haps nothing prevented the purposes of these men 
being effected, but an attack made by the Indians 
in the French interest, upon a small Moravian 
station near Gnadenshutten. The whites there, it 
appears, were assembled at supper, when suddenly 
their watch-dogs were heard barking. The door 
of the room was opened, the Indians fired in, kill- 
ing one man and wounding several. The rest 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 149 

secured and barricaded the doors, and retreated 
hastily to the garret. The Indians, meanwhile, 
stationed watchers at the windows and front door 
of the house, and then set fire to it. Of fifteen 
persons within, only four escaped ; three by leaping 
out through the flames of the burning roof on the 
rear of the house ; and another, who was confined 
by sickness in an out-house, by breaking through 
a back window. Horses, stables, the barn of the 
station, well stocked with grain and hay, cattle, 
sheep — the entire settlement, in a word — was re- 
duced to ashes within an hour. 

This event, melancholy as it was, proved favor- 
able to the Moravians, for it convinced all who 
heard of it that no connivance or concert could 
possibly exist between these two parties. This 
appeared still more clearly, when it was found that 
the Christian Indians under the Brethren were the 
only ones in the country, even of their own Dela- 
ware tribe, who remained peaceable and friendly 
to the English. A small force of the latter was 
garrisoned near the place of the massacre just 
mentioned ; but these troops, instead of defending 
the " Christians," as intended, were themselves 
cut off by the enemy. 

It seems the soldiers had been amusing them- 
selves with skating on the ice of the Lehigh, this 
being the winter of 1755, when, at some distance 
higher up, where the river made a bend, they 
espied two hostile Indians, apparently engaged in 
13* 



150 HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 

the same sport. These were supposed to be 
already in their power, and they pursued them with 
eagerness. But suddenly, as they glided swiftly 
up the shore, a party of the enemy, which had lain 
in ambush, rushed forth from their hiding-place 
among the bushes, attacked them, and killed them 
to a man. A few of the garrison had remained in 
the fort ; but these were frightened, and fled. The 
savages took possession of the fort, and burnt it, 
together with the mills of the Brethren, and the 
houses of the Christian Indians. 

The latter, after this, mostly removed to Bethle- 
hem, leaving their other settlement, Gnadenshut- 
ten, to its fate. And here they were of essential 
service in defending and assisting both the mis- 
sionaries and the English settlers. They guarded 
them when at work in planting and harvesting, 
and carried messages to the hostile Indians when 
no other persons could be induced to hazard their 
lives in that service. This state of things con- 
tinued for some years ; and so much reliance was 
placed upon the aid of the Christian Indians, that 
they were often applied to in desperate cases of 
distress. For example, in February, 1761, a white 
man came to their new village at Nain, weeping 
for the loss of his child, and imploring the Indians 
to assist him and his wife in a search through the 
woods. Several of the Indians instantly started 
off, went to the house of the parents, discovered 
the footsteps of the child, traced them carefully 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 151 

some miles into the woods, found the child there, 
and bore him back safe, though shivering, and 
nearly famished and frightened to death, to his 
overjoyed and grateful parents. 

Still, the suspicions of the whites against the 
Christian Indians were not altogether allayed. 
An idea may be formed of the danger to which 
these unfortunate people were constantly exposed, 
from an event which took place in another part of 
the state. It seems, there was a small settlement 
of peaceable Indians at Canestoga, near Lancas- 
ter, where they had resided for more than a cen- 
tury, their ancestors having been among the first 
to welcome William Penn, treat with him, and 
furnish venison for his people. These Indians 
were victims to the common prejudice against the 
race. 

A party of fifty-seven settlers, from a neighbor- 
ing village called Paxton, suddenly attacked them, 
about the time we have last mentioned, and mur- 
dered fourteen of their men, women and children 
upon the spot. The rest, to the number of fif- 
teen or twenty, happened to be somewhere abroad, 
heard of the massacre of their relations and friends, 
fled for protection to Lancaster, and were there 
placed in the gaol of the town for safety. Even 
here the mob, who had now assumed the name of 
the Paxton Boys, pursued them ; and, notwithstand- 
ing a regiment of Highlanders was quartered in 
the town at this very moment, they broke open the 



152 HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 



gaol doors, rushed in upon the miserable objects 
of their hatred, despatched them all, and having 
thrown the mangled bodies into the street, rode 
off, shouting victory, and threatening that the 
Province Island " savages" should soon share the 
same fate. 

" The first notice I had of this affair," writes a 
respectable eye-witness, " was, that while at my 
father's store near the court-house, I saw a number 
of people running down the street towards the 
gaol, which enticed me and other lads to follow 
them. At about sixty or eighty yards from the 
gaol, we met between twenty-five and thirty men, 
well mounted on horses, and equipped for murder 
with rifles, tomahawks and scalping-knives. I 
ran into the prison-yard,, and there, near the back- 
door of the prison, lay an old Indian named Will 
Sock, and his squaw, particularly well known and 
esteemed by the people of the town for their placid 
and friendly conduct. Across their bodies lay two 
children, of about the age of three years, whose 
heads were split with the tomahawk, and their 
scalps all taken off. Towards the middle of the 
gaol yard, along the west side of the wall, lay a 
stout Indian, whom I especially noticed to have 
been shot in the breast, his legs chopped w r ith the 
tomahawk, his hands cut off, and finally a rifle 
ball discharged in his mouth, so that his head was 
blown to atoms, and his brains splashed against 
the wall ! In the same condition I found the 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 153 

whole of them, men, women and children, spread 
about the prison-yard, shot, scalped, hacked and 
cut to pieces." 

This horrible transaction occurred in 1763. 
Soon afterwards, a new settlement, called Fri- 
denshutten, was formed by the Indians and mis- 
sionaries on the banks of the River Susquehannah. 
There they soon erected a meeting-house, and huts 
for themselves and the missionaries, and then 
cheerfully set about clearing and fencing their 
new grounds, subsisting themselves, meanwhile, 
upon wild meat brought in by their hunters, and 
wild potatoes and other roots dug by their women 
and children. In 1767, the meeting-house being 
too small to contain the number, they built a large 
spacious church, of square white pine timber, 
shingle-roofed, and with a neat cupola, and a bell 
upon the top. At this time there were forty well- 
built houses of a similar construction in the village, 
with well-fenced gardens attached to each. 

After this, troubles, multiplied again, owing to 
the jealousy of the neighboring Indians; and the 
Christian settlers concluded, on the whole, to 
move off farther west, to the banks of the River 
Ohio and its branches. The journey, which took 
place in 1772, was long and tedious. Some trav- 
elled by land, having seventy head of cattle to 
drive, beside horses for carrying the sick and the 
baggage. Others took advantage of the navigable 
river and streams ; and these had the charge of 



154 HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 



bulky articles, plough-irons, harrows, and all other 
kinds of farming utensils and tools, iron pots and 
large kettles (for the boiling of maple sugar) in- 
cluded. The land-party had to penetrate with 
their cattle through difficult thickets and swamps ; 
to cross rivers, brooks, mountains and hills, to en- 
dure tremendous thunder-storms, and to be ex- 
posed to the bite of venomous reptiles, on the way, 
by which some of their horses were bitten and died. 
Added to this, was the torment inflicted by incred- 
ible numbers of the sand-fly ; so abundant in some 
places as to resemble a fog in the air ; and so 
troublesome that no rest could be obtained at the 
encampments, but by kindling fires and sitting in 
the thickest smoke. Some of the party were un- 
fortunate, also, in taking the measles on the jour- 
ney ; and of this disease several of the children 
died, including a poor cripple ten or eleven years 
of age, who had been carried thus far in a basket, 
by his mother, on her back. Luckily, they suffer- 
ed nothing from want of provisions. Game was 
plenty in the woods, and the hunters killed more 
than one hundred deer during the two months they 
spent on their journey. 

Two settlements were built upon the borders of 
the Muskingum River ; and beautiful little places 
they were. The chapel at the village of Shonbrun, 
which the Indians built with their own hands, was 
forty feet by thirty-six. At both places they 
were built of squared timber, with a cupola and 



HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 155 



bell. The towns being regularly laid out, the 
streets wide and clean, and the cattle kept out by 
neat fences, the settlements made a handsome ap- 
pearance, and excited the admiration of all visitors. 

This prosperity, however, was not of long con- 
tinuance. The revolutionary war soon came on, 
and the different Indian tribes in all the western 
country became involved either in actual hostilities 
with the English or Americans, or in such sus- 
picions of hostility as amounted to nearly the 
same thing. They were jealous and suspicious, 
too, of each other, and of the Christian Indians, 
found fault with them, quarrelled with them as 
much as they could, and threatened to destroy them 
unless they would take up the tomahawk and join in 
the war. This the Christians constantly refused to 
do. They remained peaceable, though much im- 
posed on and oppressed, during the whole of the 
revolution. 

Their numbers, however, were gradually dimin- 
ished, and their settlements broken up. The 
finishing stroke was given, a year or two after the 
close of the war, while a great excitement against 
all the tribes prevailed in the minds of the white 
settlers on the frontiers. A large party of the 
latter made an attack on the principal settlement 
of the Christians, and commenced an indiscrim- 
inate massacre of men, women and children. 

More than ninety perished in this shocking 
manner, and many of the others were carried into 



156 HISTORY OF THE WESTERN STATES. 



captivity among hostile Indian tribes. Thus the 
settlements of the unfortunate Christian Indians 
were entirely broken up, and the few of their 
number who survived were scattered over the 
country in such a manner, and so much dis- 
heartened, that little or no erTort was afterwards 
made to renew their former prosperity. 





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